Wheels Within Wheels
by Violetlight
Summary: Envy is the only homunculus left in a post-Promised Day world, or so it thinks. Ling disagrees - Greed may have survived. Can Envy learn to work with the humans it hates, to revive the homunculus it wants? Envy/Greed NOT yaoi, Ling/LanFan.
1. Ch 1 A New Spin on Things

**Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood **

"**Wheels within Wheels"**

By Violetlight

Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist, in any of its incarnations. That pleasure belongs to Hiromu Arakawa and Square Enix. I am borrowing their universe and characters for entertainment purposes only. However, please do not use any of the concepts, or any possible future original characters that may be introduced, without my permission.

Author's Note: It's been a long time since I ventured into the world of fan fiction, as I've been trying to develop my own, original science fiction universe. However, sometimes you just get an idea stuck in your head, and it has to get down on paper. I had such an idea regarding two characters from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood – the homunculi Envy and Greed. I began to wonder, what could have happened to the two of them if they hadn't died? This story explores that possibility. How could these two homunculi survive in a world without Father to tell them what to do? How could they form their own lives, their own identities? If enough others share my interest, I just may have to further explore these two, and find out what happens to them. Before that, though, please enjoy this possible exploration of their past. Their past relationship, long before the series began, and the effect it had on Envy in particular. What can I say? I love that little shape-shifting sociopath!

Revamp Note: After several months and seven chapters of this story, "Wheels Within Wheels" has evolved into something more than what I first anticipated, as I explained in more detail in my author's note for chapter 6. On the advice of several other readers, including a professional editor, I have decided to rewrite chapters 1 and 2 in order to a) tone down the sex, bringing the story rating down to a "T" from a "M" and b) fix some continuality issues. So, please enjoy the new and improved "Wheels Within Wheels"!

Violetlight

* * *

Chapter 1: A New Spin on Things

"Goodbye ... Edward ... Elric." With Envy's final, tearful words, the Fullmetal Alchemist watched silently as the tiny, lizard-like homunculus dissolved into ash at his feet. To think, something so evil could be so helpless at the end ...

Colonel Mustang obviously did not share Edward's pity. "He took the easy way out and killed himself. Cowardly bastard." Had Mustang thought of it, Edward could easily imagine him spitting in the homunculus' ashes.

Scar, unsurprisingly, was not moved either. Perhaps he had just seen too much death for it to faze him anymore. "We've wasted enough time here," he said calmly, as he started down the tunnel.

Edward nodded, but his eyes still lingered on the pile of ash. "First Lust, then Gluttony, and now Envy..." he listed.

"Makes things easier for us," Mustang almost growled. "Come on, Fullmetal, stop dawdling. We need to find that thing's creator before something else blows up in our faces," he followed Scar down the hall resolutely.

Hawkeye was at least a little more understanding. She placed a somewhat comforting hand on Ed's shoulder. "Edward ... he brought it upon himself. Let's go."

"Yeah ... I know he did, but still ... why does it have to be this way? I mean, Greed changed ..."

"You can't save everyone. I thought you would have learned that by now." Mustang said harshly.

Edward glared at him, but followed the rest of the way down the underground tunnel in silence, sparing not another glance backwards. If he had, he might have seen the floating ash settle down, a few centimeters _above_ the floor of the tunnel.

* * *

As the sound of the footsteps of its four human oppressors faded slowly into the labyrinth of tunnels underneath Central City, the tiny, lizard-like creature waited, its bulbous slit-pupiled eyes shut tightly as to not break its camouflage, its scaly skin perfectly matching the dusty, grey-brown stone floor. Envy hardly dared to breathe until the last vibrations died away, lest it meet another bout of the Flame Alchemist's fury.

_Are they gone?_

Envy opened one eye carefully, and stared into the blackness of the tunnels for a few more minutes, until it was clear that the humans would not be returning. Its scales changed back to their regular, dark green colourization, as an audible sigh of relief escaped its vertical, tooth-filled mouth – it could hardly believe its ruse had worked! Envy's fear and nervousness soon evolved into maniacal laughter.

"Ahhahahahaha! Those retards fell for it! Imagine thinking me, Envy, would commit suicide! Idiots! Stupid human idiots! Stupid Pipsqueak! Stupid fire-shooting lunatic and his stupid trigger-happy girlfriend! Stupid scar-faced jerk! All idiots!"

Envy spared one last look at the pile of ash and the blood staining the floor around it. "Well, so long spleen, or were you a lung? Meh, it doesn't matter. You'll grow back." The lizard-thing smiled, as well as it could with its odd mouth, at what used to be an organ of some sort, the humans having mistaken it, oh so foolishly, for its Philosopher's Stone. Ha! Such an amateur trick for somebody who could regenerate body parts. Proud of itself for its deception, Envy started to crawl purposefully down the tunnel, its eight legs almost marching, and continued to talk to itself.

"Oh, I'm going to enjoy making those human morons pay for their idiocy. That is, if Father doesn't finish them all off first. He always gets to have all the fun. No fair. How come I never get to kill the humans I _really_ want to kill? I was really looking forward to seeing that Flame Alchemist join his stupid friend too. Maybe Father will let me kill them after he's done with them? I don't see why not. I've been good. I've _survived_, unlike Lust, or Gluttony ... Pride you little bastard! You were supposed to take care of him while I was gone! I'm going to punch you right in your smug, prick face for letting Gluttony die! And what the hell did the Pipsqueak mean by saying Greed had 'changed' ... ah shit, not again!"

Envy stopped mid-march as the answer as to why Greed had apparently 'changed' hit it harder than the upcoming brick wall would have. "Greed you traitorous asshole! Don't tell me you betrayed Father again! Oh, who am I kidding, _of course_ you did!" The little green monster sat back on its haunches in the middle of the tunnel, a little shocked by where its own line of thinking was taking it. "You said you'd wait for me to get back from the North. I guess I shouldn't be surprised ... it's not the first time you've lied to me. Stupid Greed! You ... you disobeyed Father, again! You're so stupid ... brave, but stupid...so brave..." the little lizard-homunculus started to tremble. Then the tunnel echoed with its scream.

"IT'S NOT FAIR!"

* * *

Envy remembered a time more than a hundred years earlier. Before Greed had left. A time where its brother-homunculus had been quite popular among his fellows, especially Lust, if her screams of pleasure echoing off the cavernous walls of Father's Lair hadn't made _that _apparent. As much as it tried to ignore the memories of _that day_, they kept creeping back into Envy's mind ...

* * *

"It's not fair." Envy paced back and forth along the outer walls of the Lair, trying to ignore the noise its siblings were making. Lust was "practicing" her particular sin, and once again, she had chosen Greed as her practice partner. _It's not fair, no fair no fair no fair!_

"Will you two shut up already?" Envy screamed into the room, not expecting, or wanting an answer. The androgynous homunculus crossed its arms and proceeded to do one of the things it did best – it pouted. "It's not fair," it mumbled again, and barely noticed another, rounder shape in the darkness.

"Envy?"

"What is it, Gluttony?" Envy snapped at the globular homunculus.

"... I'm hungry." Gluttony's usual complaint crossed the simple-minded being's lips.

"Tell me something I don't know." Envy growled. It blew back a stray bang from its face with its huff, then smiled its trademark, slasher grin. "Go eat Lust." It suggested.

"I can't. I'm not allowed." Gluttony moaned.

"Why not? Did Daddy say no?"

"Actually, Lust did. She said I wouldn't do a good job."

It took a second for the alternate meaning of Gluttony's surprisingly articulate sentence to sink in. Then, Envy broke into snickers. "Yeah, I guess you wouldn't."

"But I _like_ eating stuff." Gluttony complained.

"Yeah yeah, I know. We all know. Hey, why don't you go ask her again? Maybe she's changed her mind ... hehehe." Envy giggled, and noticed the sudden silence in the Lair as Gluttony happily bounced away to presumably go do exactly what the older homunculus had suggested. Ha! They finally shut up, and Gluttony was out of its hair. It still wasn't fair that Lust and Greed were always going at it like a couple of horny human teenagers, but at least it was a _quieter_ unfairness.

Envy stretched its arms over its head – extending them up almost to the high ceiling of the cavern, before shrinking them back down to normal size, and folding them behind its head. "Don't know why they always gotta pick each other. It's not like they're the only ones around here with a sex drive." Envy mumbled to itself. "It's so not fair."

"Poor little Envy, always watching, never doing." The smug, familiar voice sounded from the nearby shadows.

"Funny. You were a little too busy a few minutes ago to be making your usual snide comments, Greed." Envy retorted.

"Oh, you heard that?" Greed sneered.

"Sloth probably heard, from wherever the hell he is now." Envy's eyes flickered briefly in the direction of the tunnel leading out towards the nationwide transmutation circle that its large, lazy sibling had recently begun digging.

"The difference is, Sloth wouldn't care." Before Envy could give an equally snide remark back about Sloth not caring about _anything_, Greed cut it off. "Unlike you, that is."

Envy began to growl, but in a rare display of self-control, managed to hold back its rage, instead resorting to another favourite trait – sarcasm. "And why the hell would I give a damn about you and the Slut-Hag carrying on like a couple of lowlife, horny humans?"

Greed leaned casually against the wall next to Envy. "Because we were, and you weren't, and that's enough for you, isn't it, my little green monster?"

"I'm not _your_ anything." Envy scoffed.

"Oh, but you are. You're _my _fellow homunculus, _my_ dear little sibling ... just what are you anyway? A brother, or a sister?" Greed practically hissed the last word.

Envy smirked. "That's just going to have to stay _my_ little secret."

Greed's own smirk seemed to darken. "I don't like things being kept from me." His arms then actually did darken, as his skin turned shiny dark grey with his carbonization. Using just one, now-invulnerable hand, he pinned Envy's own arms up against the stone wall of the cavern by its wrists. "Guess I'll just have to find out." His other hand snaked down, beneath the shape-shifted, pseudo-shorts Envy "wore", and between its legs ...

Only to feel nothing. Just smooth, cold skin, nothing more. Envy smiled manically at Greed's confusion, before transforming its legs into its Unleased State's limbs, giant, green, reptilian and clawed, that pushed the larger homunculus violently away.

"Ahhahahahaha! You idiot! I'm whatever the hell I want to be – male, female, or neither!" Not passing up an opportunity to gloat, Envy reformed its legs and stalked over to where Greed lay on the floor, kicking him in the side. "I'm not stuck in one form like my pitiful siblings."

"That's where you're wrong." Greed looked up, his head, and presumably the rest of him now covered by his Ultimate Shield. With the inhuman swiftness of his kind, he jumped up and charged his sibling, knocking a surprised Envy to the floor. With the strength of his carbonized limbs, Greed pinned Envy down again. "And, you just gave me one thing – your so-called secret. Now, I suggest you give me something else."

Panting with excitement it would never admit, Envy looked up into diamond-hard eyes. "And that would be?"

"The rest of you." Greed blocked another wave of protests by forcing his tongue into Envy's mouth, pressing down with a hard, violent kiss.

Envy knew what it _should _do at this point _– _bite off its lecherous sibling's conveniently non-carbonized tongue, then give Greed a well-deserved beating, carbon skin or no carbon skin. It could easily be done – no homunculus other than Sloth was physically stronger than Envy the Jealous. But ... Greed's softening lips pressing against ... hers. His tongue sliding sensually around her mouth ... it felt so good! Envy started to kiss back, her arms sliding out from Greed's relaxed grip to wrap around his back and head, pushing him closer against her.

Greed pulled back from the kiss, his shield sliding away from his handsome face. "Why should Lust be the only one who gets to enjoy me? She's not the only game in town." He smirked.

"Damn right she's not." Envy smiled, her flat chest ballooning slightly upwards into a small, but sexy set of breasts.

Greed noticed her hesitation to transform another part. He slid his left hand back down her legs, briefly caressing the ouroboros symbol on her left thigh, his own dragon-sign lining up with hers, before sliding his hand further up. "Use your jealousy, your malice, your _envy,_ to your advantage." He whispered. "Show me what you can do, my little green monster. Show me you're better than her!"

"Oh, I'm going to do more than just show you. I'm going to _prove it_." Envy slid out from beneath Greed, scrambled on top of him, and looked down into the other homunculus' handsomely – knowingly? - smirking face. "Like I said, I can be whatever I want. And I ... I _choose_ to be a better lover than Lust!"

"That's my girl," Greed growled, and pulled her close for another kiss.

"No Greed," Envy smirked. "You're _mine_."

* * *

"Greed ..." a single tear threatened to slide out of Envy's bulbous, lizard-eye, which it blinked angrily away. For one short but _very_ fun year, Greed and her had been lovers, had been ... well, as close to a couple as homunculi could be, even if he had occasionally still slept with Lust, and Envy had got jealous, then Greed had to 'calm her down' ... All that was ruined when Greed just up and left. He had betrayed Father ... had betrayed _her_ ... no. _It_. Without Greed around, Envy had little reason to become truly female. The evil glee Envy had felt when Wrath had dragged Greed's scheming, lying carcass back to Father for his rightful punishment had been real. Greed's cursing Father and his siblings as he was melted down ... his cursing Envy ... that hadn't fazed Envy in the slightest.

"He got what he deserved." Envy told itself. "What does it matter anyway? When Father brought him back, he didn't remember anything." _Didn't remember me._ "And then he took off again ..."

"Wait ... what if he took off _because_ he remembered?" And if Father finds him first, he'll kill Greed for sure this time, after running off again! I can't let him do that!" Envy surprised itself with its sudden conviction. "I mean, if anyone should kill Greed, it should be me! Yeah, that's right! I should kill the bastard for leaving me all alone ... IT'S NOT FAIR!"

Crawling along at a worm's pace wouldn't get Envy to Greed before Father had the chance to finish the traitorous homunculus off though. Envy would need to move faster, and this section of the tunnel seemed to be fresh out of mannequin soldiers – or stupid humans - to absorb.

As if an answer to its musings, Envy heard a squeak from a few yards ahead. A lowly sewer rat. Not much, but at least something with faster-than-lizard legs. Envy's eyes narrowed in on its target, as it snuck within range of the oblivious rodent, then charged, leaping with all the strength it had left onto the rat's back. Envy sunk its lamprey-like mouth onto the rat's neck and into its spinal cord, taking control of the hapless animal easily. The rat's animal soul would be too weak to even make a dent in recharging Envy's depleted Philosopher's Stone (especially after its faked death), but it could provide relatively quick transport out of the tunnel. Now, where would Greed go? Envy thought about it for a second. _Most likely, the idiot will want to confront Father directly. I have to get to him before he does. _

With a determination quite rare for Envy the Jealous, it turned its rat mount scampering towards Central Command.


	2. Ch 2 Begin to Turn

**Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood**

"**Wheels within Wheels"**

By Violetlight

Author's Note: This chapter contains spoilers for the last 10 or so episodes of _Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood_. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Revamp Note: Just a few changes here, to bring things more in line with the canonical timeline (like Envy not knowing exactly how Gluttony died), and also to add in a little more characterization and conflict between Envy and Ling in the last scene. Thanks to Shade40 for bringing these details to my attention. Even an aspiring editor needs help with editing.

* * *

Chapter 2: Begins to Turn ...

_What a mess! Father, you get to have all the fun. _Envy looked down at the rubble littering the grounds of Central's military command building from the literal bird's-eye view of its new host, a pigeon, as the humans below scurried about, like ants over their hill, clearing rubble, loading injured humans into stretchers and generally trying to clean up after what had to have been one hell of a fun battle. However, the fact that they were there at all was what worried Envy the most. _I'm pretty sure Father's Plan involved killing all these insects, _it thought. In one corner of the courtyard, soldiers – wearing both the familiar blue uniforms of Amestris' regular military, and the white, winter-ready armour of Fort Briggs, busied themselves with piling up the corpses of dead mannequin soldiers. From Envy's experience, humans were prone to chatter during mundane jobs like that. It fluttered over, and perched on the wall above the pile.

"Ugh, these things are so gross." A Briggs soldier complained as he and an Amestris enlisted man heaved another mannequin onto the pile.

"Just be glad they're dead. Trust me, you don't want to know what they were like alive." His partner added. "I have to say though, that General Armstrong of yours really saved our asses back there. I mean, I heard she was good with a sword, but to see her fight my own eyes – man. I'm glad she's on our side."

"Heh heh, yeah, good old Ice Queen. Is it true she took out a giant one of these as well?" the Briggs soldier asked.

"Yeah, she and the Strong Arm Alchemist. I mean, the thing was huge! Fast too, but the General managed to stab it right through the head a few times, and the Major impaled it on stone spikes. Damn thing kept coming back though, until this other, kinda violent lady Alchemist showed up with her gorilla of a husband. With the four of them wailing on that thing, it just seemed to give up after a while."

"Is it still there?"

"No, it dissolved into this ash, or dust, or whatever, when it died," The private replied.

_So Sloth's dead. Figures that lardhead would just give up. _Envy thought.

"So what happened out here?" the private continued.

The Briggs soldier paused from picking up the next mannequin by its feet. "I don't know, I was stationed up on the roof – but my god, there was one hell of a fight up there. Poor Captain Buccaneer..."

"What happened?"

"Your Führer happened. He tore through the Captain like he was butter – I mean, I'd heard rumours, but the way he used his swords ... it was inhuman. I swear, I thought I was going to die up there. If those other guys hadn't shown up..."

"What other guys?"

"These two – this is going to sound stupid, but I can't think of any other way to describe them. These two _ninjas_ showed up, and this guy wearing some sort of weird, skin-tight armour, dark grey and red. He must have been an alchemist or something."

_Alchemist? Alchemist my little green ass, _Envy mentally scoffed. It listened to the soldier's account of its brothers' fight, the incredible lengths Greed's human allies went to in order to make a dent in Wrath, and Wrath's subsequent fall into the moat. _So Greed finally had a second chance to fight Wrath, and it sounds like it went better for him this time. Still ..._

Lust: Murdered by Mustang, just as I almost was. Heh, guess I really am better than her after all.

Sloth: Worn down and killed by humans, of all things.

Wrath: Greed and his pet humans ganged up on him

Gluttony: I don't know how, but it's Pride's fault for not looking after him!

Pride: Father only knows what happened to that little Ass-Kisser.

Father himself: ...

_It's not possible ... it can't be true! It can't it can't it can't! _As the soldiers continued their discussion, describing the Fullmetal Alchemist and his friends' fight against Father, the same thought kept repeating itself over and over in Envy's mind. _Father ... no! It just can't be! _

"... and then, something really weird happened to Armour Guy. It's like the armour was sucked right off him by the weird, super-alchemist they were fighting. Then Fullmetal punched Super-Alchemist and he just shattered, like glass."

Envy's pigeon began to pace back and forth on the wall. _Greed and the Pipsqueak together ... yeah, that's the only way it __**could**__ have happened. How ironic – well, Father did always say that at least one of us would be the death of him. I was kinda hoping it'd be me. Meh. But that means, Greed and me, we're the only ones left! Well, unless Pride's out there somewhere ... no. If Father's really dead, then Pride would have gone down first. Greed will know for sure. Yeah. I gotta find Greed, and find out what the hell's going on!_

_Now, Greed was stuck in that human body, how humiliating! Anyway, I think that little brat that had me in a jar for so long said something about her being from a place east of Amestris, and Greed's pet was from the same place. So if I start heading East ... _Envy turned the pigeon's eyes up towards the sun – with just a sliver of moon still covering its edge from the eclipse. Turning the bird in the opposite direction, Envy took off. _I don't know why I didn't fly more often ... it sure beats walking!_

* * *

From its perch on a branch of a tree, Envy was quite grateful that pigeons didn't have much of a sense of smell. It had caught up to Greed's group just outside Central City's eastern section, in a small field. A funeral pyre had been built, and Greed, his human pet's ninja bodyguard, and even that brat kid with her stupid teddy bear were posed solemnly around it. Burning flesh was _not_ something Envy wanted to smell at the moment.

_Same old Greed, still humouring his minions. It'd be touching if it weren't so pathetic. _Still, Envy kept its distance. The Eastern humans had this really annoying ability to sense its presence, no matter its form. The only logical reason why Envy could get so close to the group now was probably because its philosopher's stone was in an even worse state than it had thought. How many souls were left in there? Envy had a sinking suspicion it was just one – its own, or whatever homunculi had that passed for souls.

Envy looked down at the back of Greed's head, trying to ignore the annoying emotions that welled up at the sight. _Stupid Greed. Look at him, with that dumb little bow in his hair. And he called me girly! Smug jerk, letting his pets think he cares about whoever that dead guy was. Idiots ... all idiots. He doesn't really care about them. He doesn't care about anyone but himself. Believe me, I know ..._

Envy suddenly cut off its own self-pity, as it saw its opportunity present itself. The ninja girl walked away from the group, towards the very tree Envy was perched in. Envy detached itself from its pigeon, extended its jaws as wide as they would go, and swallowed the disoriented bird before it could even let out one squawk.

"Grandfather..." the girl sighed sadly. Her breathing slowed, as she tried to hold back tears she could never let the others see. In her grief, she hardly felt something drop from the tree and land on her back, did not feel the needle-sharp teeth sinking into her neck, until it was too late.

* * *

"Poor Fu ..." May said for about the hundredth time during the funeral. Xiao-Mei squeaked forlornly in agreement.

Ling smiled sadly at the little sister he barely knew. "May, Lan Fan's coming back. Please, just show your respect silently, for her sake."

"Oh, okay ... sorry."

Ling just nodded, as Lan Fan wandered slowly back to his side. He then flinched, quite noticeably, as Lan draped herself across his shoulder.

"Uh... Ding. Can I talk to you for a few minutes? Alone."

"Oh, yeah, um, of course! Anything, Lan." He almost jumped to the tree Lan had been standing under moments before, as she slinked (wait, _slinked?_) over to him. Wait, had she just mispronounced his name too?

Lan Fan smiled, a creepy, chillingly familiar smile. Ling's breath caught in his throat, as her demeanour suddenly changed, still somewhat flirtatious, but also dangerous and demanding. "I thought I told you to wait for me. Do I have to remind you why?" she breathed.

Normally Ling would not have objected _at all_ to how close she had got to him, how he could feel her breath, how her lips were tantalizingly so close to his ... but something just seemed _off_. "Lan Fan? What's gotten into you?" He pushed her, gently, away.

Lan Fan frowned at the mention of her name. "Alright, cut the human crap. What the hell's going on? Are we really the only ones left?"

Ling's eyes uncharacteristically widened. The creepy smile, the weird behaviour, it was all adding up, in a very bad way "... Envy!"

"Heh. I was beginning to think you didn't recognize your 'little green monster'." She half hissed, half whispered.

"But, how? Edward saw you die. He told me so." Ling glanced around him, trying to hide his panic. Where was the real Lan Fan?

That creepy smile again. "Do you really think I'd give the Pipsqueak that pleasure?" Envy crossed Lan Fan's arms smugly.

With the motion, Ling realized in a heart-sickened second where the "real" Lan Fan was as he saw the little green parasite attached to her neck. His eyes narrowed at the creature now impersonating, no, _stealing_ his bodyguard! "On second thought, I'm glad. I'll be able to see it myself now."

"Hey hey hey!" She backed away a few steps, hands held upwards. "Look, I know we've had our, um, disagreements, Greed, but none of that matters now. Father's dead. He has to be if all the little bugs are still alive, and I know you somehow had a hand in it. It's not like they could have done it themselves."

With his homunculus' name, realization dawned on Ling. "... you shouldn't underestimate humans." He said coolly.

"Yeah yeah, your pets are different, blah blah blah. You always get so sentimental about your possessions. Well, _most_ of them, anyway." Envy pouted – an action so alien to her host that Ling was momentarily taken aback.

Envy then looked up into his eyes, looking so out of characteristically serious that Ling could not help but gaze back. She took a deep breath, then looked back down towards the ground. "I ... I wish I had had the courage to join you ..."

Ling hesitated, unsure as to how Greed would react to that "confession". Not knowing what else to do, he put a hand on Lan's shoulder. "Envy..."

She batted his hand away. "I'm not repeating myself!" She snapped. "Look, I know you must hate me, hell, I don't blame you, but ... hey. I told you that day that you're mine." The way she said "mine" left no delusions as to what exactly she meant. Ling was no fool. "Like hell you're getting out of it now," Envy added, just a touch of threatening lust in her voice.

_Okkaaay, this is getting weird. _Just the thought of _his_ homunculus ... doing something rather unspeakable with the same nightmare-fuel, soul-oozing crocodile monster Ling and Ed had fought, then made a devil's deal with ... it turned Ling's stomach. Still ... if Envy had been _that _close to Greed ...

Ling smiled, a dark, avaricious smile that he knew Lan Fan would hate to see. Still, this wasn't Lan Fan he was dealing with, he had to remember that. "I'm not who you think I am, homunculus. But, if we work together, you can have 'your' Greed back."

Lan Fan's face filled with hated, but surprisingly, Envy kept her cool. Well, as cool as it were possible for Envy to be, Ling supposed. Her eyes narrowed, as she regarded Ling with the same kind of distrust that Ling felt himself. "... I'm listening." Envy hissed.


	3. Ch 3 Devil's Bargain

**Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood**

"**Wheels within Wheels"**

By Violetlight

* * *

Chapter 3: Devil's Bargain

"Greed gave his all to defeat that 'father' of yours. Except, of course, what I managed to take for myself." Ling began to explain. "He liked to say he never lied..."

Envy snorted. "Would you really trust someone named 'Greed' not to lie? If so, you're even stupider than I thought. And I thought you were _really_ stupid."

Ling ignored the insult. "Well, he lied about that, and tried to separate himself from me completely. I didn't let him..."

* * *

_It's time to say goodbye kid. There's no point in you getting sucked into my old man with me._

_Hold on a second Greed! You just told me we'd fight together, didn't you? You can't just sucker punch me like that. How could you lie? You always said you don't believe in telling lies. It can't end this way!_

_Aw, you fell for it, hook line and sinker, you little piss-ant. THAT was the one and only lie of my life. Lan Fan has a philosopher's stone. So you don't even need me anymore kid._

_But I do!_

_Wahahahaha!_

_Wait, Greed, no wait! Don't do this!_

_Ling desperately reached out a spiritual hand, and before Greed was sucked his body completely, managed to grab hold of a trailing bit of the homunculus' essence. Just a tiny bit, no more than a sliver, a cell ... _

* * *

Ling raised his left hand hesitantly to his chest, right above where his human heart – or Greed's Philosopher's Stone – would be. Greed's ouroboros symbol, which had seemed to have disappeared since his sacrifice, reappeared and glowed with a soft red light. "I can feel him deep inside of me ... 'sleeping' is the best way I can think to describe it." Ling lowered his hand, and both glow and symbol receded.

"So you want me to wake him up?"

"That's what you want as well, isn't it? Or would you rather spend your time with us 'insects'?" Ling said calmly.

Envy now wore an expression much more common to her host body – she frowned. "... there is a way, but it's not used very often. Usually we would have just brought a weakened homunculus to Father for him to heal..."

"That's no longer an option."

"Yeah, I know, I know. Hear me out here! Geez, looks like Greed's lack of patience has rubbed off on you."

"Quit stalling, Envy."

"I'm not! I'm just trying to think of a way to describe it that your puny human mind can comprehend!" Envy growled. "Alright, look. You know how sometimes a car's battery will run dry, and you can hook it up to another car to give it a boost?"

"We don't have many automobiles in Xing yet, but I know what you mean." Ling nodded.

"Well, we homunculi can do the same thing. If one of our Philosopher Stones is drained to the point where we're incapacitated, we can give each other a "boost" – take some of the souls from our stones and give it to our siblings. I think Lust had to do that for Sloth a couple times, when he started slacking off. That was that was her excuse, anyway."

Ling tried not to cringe. "Alright, so we'll find somewhere a little more private than a field, then you can 'jump start' Greed."

Envy grinned evilly. "When you put it that way..."

"Don't get any disgusting ideas."

"Define 'disgusting'." Envy smirked. Before Ling could comment on the many things he found disgusting about Envy (not in the least the fact it was currently parasitizing off _his_ bodyguard!), Envy continued. "Anyway, it's not that easy."

"Yeah, I heard about your little spat with Colonel Mustang."

"... the pipsqueak certainly likes to run his mouth off, doesn't he?"

"I don't know what was stupider, you killing Hughes in the first place, or purposefully pissing off Mustang like that. You might as well hang a flashy neon sign over your head that says 'kill me'."

"Yeah, Greed's condescension has definitely rubbed off on you." Envy sneered.

Ling leaned casually back against the tree. "Sorry to disappoint, but that's all my own."

"Whatever. Anyway, I have to recharge my own Philosopher's Stone before I can give Greed his boost. Considering you willingly hang out with goodie-goodies like the Pipsqueak brothers, you're probably not going to like where I'm going with this." Envy's trademark evil grin widened.

Ling's eyes widened in turn. "No ... there's got to be another way. May told me how you regenerated the first time – if we just find more of those zombie things..."

"Those 'zombie things' as you put it, are all dead now. Your friends took care of that. And pre-made Philosopher Stones are going to be a little hard to come by without Father around to diffuse them. No. If you want 'your' homunculus back, you're going to have to let me go somewhere were a good number of you humans gather ... and do what I do best. Well, second best. No doubt Greed has bragged to you about what I do _best_ by now."

Ling honestly could not tell what was more frightening – just what Envy was proposing so casually, or the cold, undeniable logic of it.

"You're going to have to choose, Prince Charming. What's more important to you – holding onto the power you know Greed can grant you - or you wouldn't have accepted him so willingly in the first place - or the lives of a few humans in some foreign country that you don't give a crap about?"

"You ... you monster!"

"Aww, Greed told you his pet name for me, how sweet of him!" Envy crossed Lan's arms again, this time in smugness. "If you really can't stomach the fun option, I could always use that little gem you have in your pocket."

Ling unconsciously stuck his hand in his pocket and squeezed it around the Philosopher's Stone Lan Fan had acquired. "I ... I can't use that one. Not even to get Greed back. I need to bring it to my father – secure my ascension ..."

"If you use it to bring Greed back, you won't need that stone anymore anyway. Then again, my way _is_ more fun. Although ..." Envy smiled evilly "I could just take it from you."

"Try it." Ling's hand now went to the hilt of his scimitar.

"Who are you trying to fool? We both know you wouldn't dare harm your precious little ninja girl!" Envy laughed as she backed away and crouched readying an attack position.

Ling was not deterred. "You homunculi sure have short memories, if you've forgotten how badly I kicked your ass when you were in your own body, and had your fat, stupid brother as backup. I won't hesitate to cut you off Lan Fan's neck, you ugly little worm!"

"Ugly? UGLY! HOW DARE YOU...mphf!" Envy's predictable freak-out was all the distraction Ling needed to knee her in the stomach, causing her to drop Lan Fan's kunai. He then pinned her to the tree and covered her mouth with his hand.

"Shut up you ..."

"Ling? What's wrong? Are you and Lan Fan fighting?" May asked, and frowned suspiciously at the two older Xingese. Neither Ling nor Envy had seen her wander over. "Your chi's so screwed up, I could feel it from over there."

"No, no! We're not fighting!" Ling jumped away from Lan and waved his hand unconvincingly. "We were just ... having a discussion. You'll understand when you're older."

"Well cut it out! Fu would be ashamed of you both!" May scolded, with Xiao-Mei squeaking in agreement from her shoulder.

As May marched back over to the pyre, Ling appeared calmer, but his demeanour was still icy cold. "I meant what I said, homunculus."

"I'm attached directly to Ninja Girl's spinal cord. Force me off, and if she doesn't outright die, she'll be paralyzed." Envy hissed. "Tell me, Prince Charming. Will you be able to do it when she begs you to end her life, utterly humiliated by her uselessness to you?"

"Lan Fan knows her duty, the risks that come from serving our clan. Yes, I'd end her life before I'd let you ruin it. That's what she'd want."

Knowing she was getting nowhere, Envy changed the subject. "You might have a Stone, but you still need me to bring back Greed, with or without it."

"Right now, you need me far more than I need you." Ling said. "I may not want to, but I can live without Greed if need be." The look in his eyes now was one of somewhat familiar smug satisfaction, mixed with a cruelty that Envy did not know humans were capable of. "The question is, Envy, can _you_ live without him? All alone, with no friends, no family. No one you can rely on, or even talk to. The last homunculus, well, at least until Mustang catches up with you. Then you'll die, slowly burned to ashes, for real this time, and no one, and I mean no one in this world will miss you, or even care you ever existed at all."

Envy knelt down and tried to fight off the tears welling up in Lan Fan's eyes. "... you son of a bitch."

"So we're in agreement then. If you want Greed back, we're going to do things my way. So for one, no killing anyone unless my life, Lan Fan's or May's is in _immediate_ danger. Got it?"

"... yeah yeah."

"Two, if you're going to use my bodyguard, then you'll also assume all her responsibilities. That means obeying my orders, without question." Ling continued.

"What! You can take that stupid idea, and shove it right up your ..."

Ling snapped his fingers, causing Envy to visibly flinch.

"Fine, whatever." She resigned.

"Three ... your presence will be our little secret. Don't involve May in this. Don't tell anyone else who you are."

"Anything else, you royal pain in the ass?"

"I mean it. "For a shape shifter, you've been amazingly stupid when it comes to _not_ blowing your cover. You're going to act with more intelligence this time, or I'll shove you back in a jar, gift wrap you , and mail you to Colonel Mustang. Is that clear?"

Envy had a sudden mental image of how that would go. A monstrous, demonic Mustang, looming over her, evilly saying "well, well, what do we have here?" before engulfing her little jar in flames ... her eyes boiling out of their sockets again ...

"No no no! Anything but that!"

"So we have a deal." It was more a statement than a question.

"Yes ..." Envy whispered.

"What was that? I didn't quite hear." Ling smirked.

"Yes, okay! We have a deal."

"Good. Now stand there, and look ... sad but comforted. If May asks, you asked me to gather up your grandfather's ashes. That should be Lan Fan's right, but I'm sure she'd prefer I do that duty over you." Ling started to walk back towards the now-depleted funeral pyre. "We're going to an inn in the city for the night. We'll start to head back to Xing tomorrow, after I've gone to visit a couple of old friends in the hospital. Behave yourself, or I just might hand you over to them."

Envy cringed. "Do I want to know who they are?"

"Oh, you already know the Elric brothers quite well." Ling smiled smugly.

"...goddamnit." Envy swore under her breath.

As Ling began the sad duty of sweeping the ashes of Fu, his faithful, brave bodyguard, into a Xingese urn, he made a mental promise to Lan Fan. _Please forgive me for allowing that creature to control you. When I'm Emperor, I promise I'll make it up to you. On my life, I swear it. _His thoughts wandered to Greed. He could feel the homunculus sleeping peacefully inside him. Peaceful, but unable to wake up, and like it or not, only Envy could remedy that. Ling sighed. _You better be grateful for what I'm about to put up with for you. _


	4. Ch 4 Paradise Lost?

**Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood**

"**Wheels within Wheels"**

By Violetlight

Author's note: The legend that is told near the end of this chapter is based off of the real, ancient Greek myth of Eris, the goddess of discord (and the namesake of the solar system's newest [dwarf] planet), and formed the "prequel" tale for Homer's epics, the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_, some of the greatest works of literature ever written. If you haven't read an English translation of at least the Odyssey, I definitely recommend it. I gave it my own little twist here, renaming the characters of the myth after FMA characters. Anyway, I hope Envy doesn't seem too OOC in this chapter. Please let me know if there's anything I can improve upon.

* * *

Chapter 4: Paradise Lost?

The simple bottle of milk sat innocently on the stand, oblivious to the hatred directed towards it.

"We meet again, my arch-nemesis..." Before Edward Elric could continue on his customary rant to an inanimate object, the offending bottle was snatched away from him.

"Yoink!" Alphonse laughed, as he opened the bottle and downed the milk in one gulp.

"Hey, that was _my_ arch-nemesis!" his brother complained.

"You weren't doing anything but looking at it like it said something offensive to you, brother."

"It's milk. It's like the homunculus of drinks; it's very existence is offensive."

Alphonse ignored him. "When we get home, I'm going to drink a _gallon_ of milk, and get Winry to make me her famous apple pie! I'm not sharing either – an entire pie, all to myself. And I'm gonna ... where's my book of things I'm going to eat?"

"Sorry Al, I think it got burned up in the battle."

"Awww! That sucks! I spent years writing that! Oh well, I'm sure I can remember most of it."

As Alphonse began to scribble something onto a piece of paper – no doubt what he could remember from his food journal - Edward could not help but give his brother a small smile. "Ever the optimist, eh Al?"

His atrophied, still-scruffy-looking brother smiled back. "Hey, I'm able to eat again because of you, brother."

What a change from the suit of armour Alphonse's soul had been stuck in for so long. "I couldn't have done it without you." Edward said.

"Aww, quit getting all mushy. Besides, we still need to figure out a way to restore your leg ... Oh! A Rushwater Valley Special sandwich! What was on it again? Chicken and mustard on rye, or turkey and mayo on whole wheat?"

"Don't worry about that. I mean, I never really cared about my own limbs." Edward tapped his automail toes absent-mindedly. "Besides, it gives us another excuse to go bug Winry. She'll know what kind of sandwich that was too."

"Great idea! Let's go visit her as soon as we're out of here!"

"Yeah, she'll be thrilled to see you're back to your old self, and Granny will make sure you'll get to eat something besides hospital food."

"Hey, after how many years without taste buds, even hospital food is good. By the way, are you going to eat that pickle from your lunch?" Alphonse asked.

"Go right ahead, Al." As his brother loudly declared his love for vegetables – something their mother never would have believed – Edward got up from his bed, wincing as his broken flesh-and-blood arm moved awkwardly, and opened their window. Outside, it was a beautiful spring day, sunny but a bit breezy, with the sound of birds chirping filling his ears. April 24th, a day that came perilously close to not coming at all for anyone except for one deranged homunculus ...

Before Edward's thoughts could continue to dwell on the previous day's events, he heard an enthusiastic, little-girl shriek of his brother's name – "_Alphooooonse!"_

"Ah! May!" Al managed to squeak out. Ed turned around, to see his brother blushing beet red, May Chang hugging him happily, and a miniature panda practically doing a victory dance at her friend's glee.

"You really _are_ so much taller and handsomer than your brother!" May squealed, still hugging Al like he was her favourite stuffed toy.

"Hey, I'm right here, you know!" Ed interjected.

"How can you even tell? I'm sitting down." Al protested.

"May, calm down! Don't break him!" Ed tried to pry the excited young Xingese princess off his brother. "Just what are you doing here? I thought you, Ling and Lan Fan would be halfway back to Xing by now."

May slightly – only slightly – loosened her death grip, noticing Alphonse's atrophied state, and let the boy take a breath. "You don't think we'd just leave without saying goodbye, did you?" She asked Ed, rhetorically. "Well, _you _might have, but my _real_ Fullmetal Alchemist wouldn't." She snuggled closer against a further-reddening Alphonse.

"So where are Ling and Lan Fan?" Alphonse asked, while trying to wiggle out of May's hug.

"I bet I know." Edward smirked, and made fake kissy noises.

"Ewww, Edward, you pervert! No, Lan Fan just needed some adjustments done on her automail after, well, yesterday." May said. "They'll be in as soon as the doctor's done with her check up."

* * *

"I'm beginning to think you're incapable of keeping that friggin' arm in one piece." Dr. Knox frowned as he put away his rather unusual medical tool – a screwdriver – into one of the drawers in the small examination room, and continued to scold Lan Fan. "I don't know what you've done to get your automail in such as state and after what I've heard about the ... events of yesterday, I don't want to know. You're very lucky your nerve connections weren't torn completely out."

"I'll make sure she doesn't put her arm under anymore stress, doctor." Ling assured him.

The grumpy coroner scoffed. "Sure you will. You did one hell of a job last time." Knox mumbled. "That should do for now, but get to a proper automail mechanic and have him or her do a double check to make sure before you return to ... where was it again?"

When "Lan Fan" did not answer, Ling pinched her lightly on the neck, right near where her high cloak collar was hiding her other "medical anomaly".

"Um, Xing. Thank you, doctor." 'Lan Fan' answered softly, and tried not to cringe at having to thank the human.

"Whatever. Take better care of your girlfriend from now on, young man." The doctor said as he left.

At the doctor's departing words, both Ling and Envy made faces of disgust as soon as the old man was gone. "Ugh, no offence Lan Fan, if you're listening, but _you_ are so not my girlfriend." Ling complained. It was obvious who he meant by "you".

"You're not that lucky, Prince Charming, and she's not." Envy said. "Unlike my idiot brother, when _I_ take someone over, they don't get to comment from the peanut gallery." She clenched and unclenched Lan Fan's automail fist. "This is so weird ..."

"Tell me about it." Ling scoffed.

"Not just our ... situation." Envy moved Lan Fan's arm up and down experimentally. "This automail. I mean, it's metal, just cold, unfeeling metal, but it's hooked right up to your nerves. Heh. The lengths humans will go to cover for their imperfection. Regenerating is so much better."

"Yeah, so we can't just take the easy way out. Poor us." Ling said sarcastically. "Well, don't just sit there playing with 'your'self. There are people here I actually _want_ to spend time with."

"As much fun as hanging out with the Pipsqueak sounds, why can't I just read crappy magazines in the waiting room again?" Envy complained.

"After what you said on the way in, I'm not letting you out of my sight." Ling said, and harshly grabbed Envy's wrist. "Come on, May has probably already pounced on Alphonse by now. The Elrics will be waiting for Lan Fan and I."

"I still think it's a good idea, I mean, half the humans in here are going to die soon anyway." Envy said as Ling pulled her down the hallway. "Although, a lot of them are old. Younger souls are so much more _potent_." Envy's trademark slasher grin once again crossed Lan Fan's face. "That reminds me, do you have any idea which daycare Little Miss Hughes goes to?"

Ling stopped suddenly. "I'm sorry, Lan Fan." He said, a little too calmly for Envy's liking, before he turned around and slapped her, hard, across the face. "One more comment like that, and forget mailing you to Mustang – I'll deliver you personally!"

"But Greed..."

"_Fuck_ Greed."

Ling expected another smart ass remark from Envy at that (probably along the lines of "I intend to"), but, surprisingly, the homunculus was silent for the rest of their walk down the hall. Ling did not have time to dwell on that thought, as he heard the Elrics' and May's happy voices wafting out from the boys' room. He released his vice grip on Envy's wrist, and instead took Lan Fan's hand. The fact that the homunculus did not immediately protest was enough to ensure him that she got the message – 'keep up appearances'.

* * *

"It's so nice of you guys to come visit us before you go back to Xing." Alphonse said, for what must have been the tenth or so time. As annoying as he was – worse than Pride when he was in full "Selim" mode – Envy could not help but stare at the younger Elric. _I still can't believe the Pipsqueak actually did it – actually gave that walking tin can his body back_.

Envy only half-listened to the ever changing, twisting, sometimes arguing conversation going on between the Elrics, May and Ling. Whenever she started to fidget with boredom, Ling, his arm around Lan Fan's shoulder, would squeeze her lightly, a subtle, non-verbal reminder to not step out of line, to keep playing the role of "happy vassal/girlfriend", and it was annoying the hell out of her. _Controlling jerk ... no wonder Greed likes him. _What was even worse was that she could not just ignore them completely. She had to nod at appropriate times, give the "proper" response when Alphonse, for example, gave his condolences over Fu's death. In the many long decades of Envy's life, Father had never, _ever_ ordered her to do something so humiliating, to pretend – convincingly - to be part of an idiotic human social group.

_No_, Envy thought with a nostalgic sigh, _Father's orders had been so much simpler_. _Start a riot here, impersonate someone there ... it was Lust's job to do this nicey nice bullshit, and she was welcome to it! This "friendship" crap is about as interesting as watching Sloth sleep ... hell, even that was more fun. _Envy struggled to hold in a set of giggles as she remembered a time when she had used her lazy brother's back as a canvas and had painted all over him without the idiot even catching on. She had even wrote "hey Gluttony, eat me!" on his shoulder, which was a lot funnier before Lust had pointed out that Gluttony couldn't read.

_No more Lust to go on missions with , no more Gluttony to feed stupid humans to ... no more Sloth to play pranks on, no more Pride to get in fights with, no more Wrath to piss off ..._

And here these humans were, carrying on like they hadn't a care in the world, talking, having fun, including Lan Fan even, when she barely knew them. While Envy would never again have her siblings to argue with, to annoy and be annoyed by ... the homunculi relationships might have been odd, even antagonistic by human standards, but through it all, they had been together. They had each other, and Father, and no one else. No one else would have ever accepted them anyway. They _needed_ no one else!

_It's not fair! Why should they have their friends, when my family's dead? All except for Greed ..._

Envy turned Lan Fan's head and looked up at Greed's human host. Ling was talking with the Pipsqueak, the two of them in some sort of mock argument over a room service bill or something, any sincerity in their conversation destroyed by their constant breaks into laughter. This Xingese prince ... he was not Greed. He had some similarities, yes, some of the same minor traits, like his avariciousness, but just by the way he spoke, without Greed's sniping, sarcastic, _sexy_ attitude ... he was just another stupid human, not the homunculus she had claimed, not _her_ Greed. The face might be the same, but the difference was all too obvious to Envy.

_Yes, the Young Lord is completely different from that monster inside him ..._

Where the hell did that thought come from?

Envy felt a motion in Lan Fan's right foot, and looked down to see the big toe wiggling up and down regularly. With a shock, Envy realized that she was _not_ the one doing the wiggling, and she could not stop it! Envy closed Lan Fan's eyes, and did something she had never bothered to do before – mentally spoke directly to her host. _Hey you! I'm in charge here; cut it out!_

Lan Fan's response was a simple, resolute, _No_.

_I'll suck your soul into my Philosopher's stone if you don't behave. _Envy warned._ Don't think I won't do it!_

_I hope you and your incestuous brother burn in hell!_

_Incestuous? Homonculi don't abide by your stupid human ... hey! You're just trying to distract me!_

No affirmation or denial, just infuriating silence from Lan Fan.

Envy sunk her teeth further into Lan Fan's neck, as if tightening her physical hold upon her could reinforce her mental hold. She could literally _taste_ Lan Fan's spinal cord. It was so tempting to just bite down ...

When a flicker of motion caught her attention. Lan Fan had managed to open her eyes herself, and the image that greeted Envy caused her to gasp.

Colonel Mustang, and Hawkeye too, in the doorway.

They had found her!

Mustang may have been dressed in the same hospital garb as the Elrics, leaning on Hawkeye for support, but Envy would not be fooled by him again – no matter how he was dressed, he was no less dangerous. "I thought I recognized those voices. Ling, was it? And Lan Fan? I just wanted to give my thanks again ..." Mustang began. Not that Envy heard that – to her, he might as well have said "I'll be sending you straight to hell now, mwa ha ha ha!"

"I ... I have to go!" Envy practically screamed, and ran past the colonel and up the hospital hallway as fast as Lan Fan's legs would take her.

* * *

For a second, the rest of the people in the room were taken aback by Lan Fan's sudden, panicked departure. Until Ling snapped out of his surprise, yelled Lan Fan's name and ran after her.

"What ... what just happened there?" Alphonse asked, blinking in surprise.

"I don't know ... I mean, Lan Fan's been acting weird since her grandfather's funeral." May tried to explain, equally confused. "I think she and Ling had a fight too."

"And there they were, trying to put on happy faces for our sake. I feel so bad now." Alphonse said sadly.

"So do I ... but she took off as soon as the colonel showed up ..." Edward said.

"Don't worry. I mean, we don't take it personally or anything." Hawkeye tried to reassure him. "Maybe having so many people here was just too much for her to cope with, when she's still grieving. We shouldn't have been so thoughtless."

"Yeah, but still ..." Ed started to walk out of the room.

Mustang put a hand on his shoulder before he could leave. "Don't make things worse, Edward. I'm sure Ling can handle it."

* * *

"Get back here!" Ling raced down the hallway after Envy, but the panicked homunculus – using Lan Fan's natural speed – was just too fast. Ling could not help but growl in frustration as she turned a corner ...

Then he heard a crash. Ling ran around the corner, to see Lan Fan on the floor, broken dishes and a tipped over hospital cart surrounding her. He took advantage of Envy's slip up, as he grabbed the homunculus by the shoulders and shook her. "What the hell did you think you were doing, you little monster!"

"Li ... Young Lord?"

"Wha ... Lan Fan!" Still wary of a trick, Ling pulled her collar away from her neck carefully, only to find a small, bleeding circular cut. The homunculus was gone!

"Lan Fan! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" Ling pulled his vassal into hug, not even caring when Lan Fan stiffened, and blushed in surprise. It didn't matter, she was safe. "I never should have let that monster control you for a second. Can you ever forgive me?"

"Young Lord ... I might not like Greed, but I know why you did it. You never abandon your friends, not when there's any hope." Ling was happily surprised when Lan Fan returned his hug. "That's one of the things I ... I respect most about you. Why I'm proud to serve you ..."

The two Xingese just stayed there for a few moments, hugging each other silently. Neither noticed their observer, who watched not only them, but a tiny, green, lizard-like creature scurry through an air vent.

* * *

"He won't ... he won't find me here! I don't want to die! I don't want to die! It's not fair!" Envy crawled down the air vent, still in a blind panic. It did not start to come to its senses until it fell, with a small scream of surprise, through the screen holes of a vent cover and onto a neat stack of sheets. A linen closet, apparently. Envy bounced off the stack of sheets and onto a nearby stack of towels, which still seemed way too big to the little homunculus. Its surroundings only served to frustrate it more.

"I ... I blew it, didn't I?" Realization of the consequences of running away slowly dawned on Envy. "Ling won't trust me again, and I'll never get Greed back now! I'm all alone ... all alone ... it's not fair!" Frustration, anger, guilt, all sorts of emotions threatened to overwhelm Envy. It slammed its little fists against a towel, and started to cry. "It's not fair! Why can't I have my brother back? Greed, I want you back! I don't want to be alone, don't want to! I want all my brothers and sister back! Father! Kill them all! Make it better! Make them pay! Make it stop hurting so much ... it's not fair!"

Envy lost track of time as it cried. It could have been minutes, could have been hours. What did it matter? It just continued to sob into the towel, letting loose all its sadness, grief, self-pity, and, inevitably, envy. "Why why why why why!" It punched the towel in frustration. "It's not faaaaiiiirrrr!" Envy barely even noticed when the sliver of light that came in from under the closet door suddenly grew bigger. It gasped, chocking back another sob as fear overtook sadness. Envy hid behind the towel as best it could.

" 'It's not fair', you say that a lot. I wonder what your basis for comparison is?" that voice ... no, it couldn't be! Envy hesitated, but poked its head out from behind the towel.

"Fa ... Father?" For a second, it appeared like Envy's crying for its parent had actually yielded results. The man in the doorway looked almost just like Father, but where its creator's face would have been stern, probably angry at Envy for succumbing to such weakness as a crying fit, this man's face was calmer ... not quite pitying, more ... understanding?

"No, I'm not your father, little one. Envy, is it?" the twin of Father held out his hand, inviting the tiny homunculus to crawl onto it.

Envy crawled cautiously towards him, and sniffed. "Then you ... you must be Hohenheim, right? Father's ..." it hesitated to use the word "friend" towards a human, even this one.

"I was Slave Number 23, the human that was used to help create your father, yes." Hohenhein answered, sparing Envy the indignity. "He, well, he was like my twin brother. I guess that would make me your uncle. Uncle Van."

Envy crawled onto his hand, and let its "uncle" pick it up. The not-quite human smiled kindly at Envy; his expression made it uncomfortable. "The Elrics are your sons, then. Shouldn't you be with them?" It snivelled, self-pitying.

"I was with them last night, while they slept. They don't need an old man like me anymore, if they ever did to begin with. They have their friends with them." Hohenheim said. "You, on the other hand, if I heard your sobs correctly, you don't have anyone right now, do you?"

"Your sons and their friends would probably say I don't deserve anyone." Envy admitted. "Maybe they're right."

"Yet you're still trying to bring your brother back."

"How ...?"

"Oh, I know enough about my nieces and nephews to know you wouldn't have had anything to do with that Ling fellow unless there was a chance, however small, that Greed was still in there somewhere." Hohenheim said. "I guess you can blame that on me. Edward inherited that trait too, that determination to protect his family."

"It's not quite the same thing."

"No, of course it isn't." Hohenheim carried Envy away from the linen closet, tucking the little homunculus close to his chest so no one would see, and took a seat in the adjacent, vacant examination room. "Will you humour an old man? Let me tell you a story, one from when I was a child in Xerxes, over 400 years ago now."

"Isn't that what human parents do? Tell children stories? Father never did anything like that ..."

"Well, he and I differed on quite a few levels. I think I told this one to the boys when they were young. I'd like you to hear it too."

"... okay. But this is weird."

"Life is weird, Envy." Hohenheim took a breath, and began. "In Xerxes, we believed in not just one god, like the Ishvalans, but in many, and each was an aspect of something in our lives. Of emotions, of natural events, of concepts. Not too different from homunculi, come to think of it. Well, one of these gods was the goddess of mischief and chaos. Wherever a problem was to be found, she was there. If she didn't outright cause it, she made it worse. Her name was Eras."

"Heh. Sounds like my kind of girl."

"Anyway, none of the other gods or mortals liked her very much because of her mischief-causing ways. So one day, when all the other gods were invited to a party, Eras was left out. When they were all having a good time, she was left all alone."

"Jerks."

"Well, yes. Jerks they might have been, but Eras did kind of deserve it. Anyway, she didn't let a lack of an invitation stop her. Eras showed up to the party anyway, and decided to have some fun to get revenge on the other gods for snubbing her. She put a beautiful, golden apple in the middle of a table, with a label attached that said "for the most beautiful goddess". Naturally every goddess there thought that _she _deserved the apple, and they fought over it. The male gods wanted nothing to do with this argument, so they asked a mortal prince, named Edmund, to judge which goddess should be given the apple. Each of the three major goddesses in turn offered the prince a bribe. Greda, the goddess of political power, offered to make him the most powerful ruler in the world. Prydei, the goddess of wisdom, offered to make him wisest man in the world, but Lusditee, the goddess of love, had the most compelling bribe. She offered him the love of the most beautiful woman in the world. She neglected to mention, of course, that the most beautiful woman in the world, named Winry, ironically, was already married."

"This prince is an idiot. He should have taken Greda or Prydei's offer instead. Why are all princes such morons?" Envy asked.

"I wish I knew the answer to that one. Anyway, the goddesses' quarrelling, and the political mess that Edmund's thinking with his ... gonads caused, led to a war that lasted twenty years and killed many mortal heroes. And it was all caused by Eras' jealousy."

Envy yawned. It could not tell whether it was the earlier stress, or Hohenheim's story that was making it tired. "Do you have a point, old man?"

"A lot was said about the consequences of Eras' actions, but not much was ever said about _her_. What was the rest of her story? Did she ever get over her jealousy? Did she ever make friends of her own, or even find love? I wonder ..."

The homunculus did not answer him this time. Envy had fallen asleep in Hohenheim's lap.

"I wonder indeed ..."

* * *

"Well, it's been fun, Ed, but I guess I'll have to rack up your hospital food bill some other time." Ling smiled at his friend.

"Yeah, well, you still owe me for room service. You'll just have to pay me back when you're Emperor." Edward said. "You two lovebirds try not to traumatize the kid on your way back, okay?"

"I don't think that will be a problem." Ling said, as in the background, Lan Fan was still attempting to pry a sobbing May Chang away from Alphonse.

After a few more minutes of crying on May's part, and begging on Al's, she eventually let go. "I'll miss you, my Fullmetal Alchemist. You'll come to visit, right?" May sniffed.

Alphonse actually smiled at May and, to the amazement of Ling and Ed, put his arms around her, voluntarily. "I'll come and learn alkahestry from you as soon as I can, I promise."

"Well ... that was weird. Anyway, we have a train to catch. Let's get going!" Ling said, his hand behind his head in his usual, cheerful manner.

"Young Lord ... are you sure you want to go just yet?" Lan Fan whispered as she came up beside him. The Elric brothers had gone back into their room, and May Chang was far enough ahead of them that she would not hear.

"... Envy made her choice." Ling said, with finality. "I'll find another way to get Greed back, even if I have to use the Stone."

"But then ... you won't be Emperor."

"I know ... but he saved my life. I owe it to him to bring him back, even if that means giving up my ambitions."

"I don't think your homunculus would agree." A new voice sounded. Ling and Lan Fan turned around. The Elric brothers' father was the last person they had expected to see.

"Mr. Hohenheim," Ling bowed respectfully.

"I believe I have something you need." Hohenheim put his hands in his waistcoat pocket, and gently lifted out Envy. The little green monster was fast asleep in his hands, curled up into a little ball, the end of its tail almost reaching its mouth, like a tiny, living ouroboros. "She had a bit of a fit earlier, and I think she drained most of the energy left in her Philosopher's Stone. She'll be asleep for a while yet."

Ling hesitated for a moment, then rose his left hand to his chest. Greed's ouroborus symbol briefly appeared, but its glow was fainter than before.

"Their survival is in your hands now, Ling Yao." Hohenheim said simply.

"I understand." Ling sighed, and took the sleeping homunculus from Hohenheim's hands, putting her gently into his pocket.

"Try not to let my niece and nephew get in too much trouble." Hohenheim said by way of farewell. He put on his hat, and left through the hospital doors.

"Young Lord ...?" Lan Fan questioned.

"No, I'm not sure about this, but, for Greed's sake, I have to try." Ling took her hand. "Like you said, I can't abandon my friends. I don't want to lose your ... respect, after all."

"No, Young Lord." Lan Fan said simply, as they took their turn through the door. "And you haven't."


	5. Ch 5 Dream Interlude 1: Genesis

**Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood**

"**Wheels within Wheels"**

By Violetlight

Author's Note: A note on Envy, gender, and pronouns

In case it was getting a little confusing, Envy _is_ a genderless entity in theFMA manga/Brotherhood, but I have been using some gender-specific pronouns during the course of this story, for dramatic effect. I will briefly explain the system I am using:

While in little green monster form, and _not _controlling anyone, Envy will be referred to as "it", as I doubt that form is even capable of having gender. However, if Envy takes control of a human while in that form, I will usually refer to it as the gender of its host, for convenience's sake. i.e. when Envy controls Lan Fan, Envy will be referred to as "she", since as its host cannot shapeshift, it cannot actively choose its gender anyway.

While capable of shapeshifting, Envy is whatever gender, or neither, that the situation calls for. Most of the time, especially while in its preferred form, Envy will therefore also be an "it", though if the situation demands a specific gender role, or if Envy is mimicking a human, the appropriate pronoun will be used.

As reviewer for my side story, _Divine Comedy _(go read it now! Well, when you're done this chapter), pointed out, the pronoun "he" has been used as an all-encompassing term by other writers. I must disagree with this practice. Using "he" to refer to any gender in English is about as outdated as using the term "mankind" to refer to our species. "He" implies male just as much as "she" implies female, and has done since at least second wave feminism of the 1960s and 70s. We are actually quite fortunate in English to have a gender neutral pronoun in the form of "it" – we just need to get over the word's dehumanizing connotations. As, however, I am dealing with a non-human character here, I find no problem in using the term "it" to refer to Envy (who probably wouldn't want to be "humanized" anyway).

In chapter 4, Hohenheim referred to Envy as his "niece", mostly as a dramatic effect, to make the comparison between Envy and the mythological story of Eras more apparent. Also, while there is a gender neutral term for nieces and nephews, according to Websters Dictionary Online, it's a rather stupid-sounding word, in my opinion. It's apparently a "nibbling", and to me, that brings to mind a baby version of a certain alien from _Futurama_, not a family member, so I won't be using it.

Thanks for reading the mini linguistics lesson! Now, on with the story!

* * *

Chapter 5: Dream Interlude 1 - Genesis

Dreams. Hopes. Aspirations. These are qualities usually considered uniquely human, but that arrogant assumption is of course untrue in a world where more than just the human mind is self-aware. As are memories. Convictions. Nightmares.

As its human companions rode the train, the landscape of Eastern Amestris flashing by their windows like one of those new, moving picture shows, Envy slept in one of the deep pockets of Ling's coat, his handkerchief having become twisted around its tiny, reptilian form like a blanket. The little green homunculus' slumber, however, was far from peaceful. The tip of its tail twitched in its sleep as dream-memories filled its mind ...

* * *

_In the beginning, there was a swirling vortex of thoughts, emotions and knowledge. Hundreds of thousands of individual souls, all part of a vast, mental storm, and it was in the Hurricane's eye – a part of the entity that somehow, made it all make sense. Over time, parts of the storm would be purged from the main vortex, and become smaller tornadoes, spinning with their own, concentrated energies, yet always orbiting their parent. It had happened three times before, and would happen again. It was inevitable. After all, this storm wanted to be Perfect._

_The hurricane may have loomed over its child-storms with absolute power, yet it felt jealousy for their ability to spin away from its presence, even, illogically, when it had ordered them to do so in the first place. Its invidiousness extended out to the wisps and clouds that made up other weather patterns, similar yet so different from the storm's own make up, and it hated its own weakness. So every malicious emotion, every jealous thought, all its __**envy**_ _was funnelled into the new tornado, as was a generous amount of soul energy, to help ensure that the hurricane would never have to reabsorb _that_ particular sin. Finally, a small zephyr of personality, for lack of a better word, of soul, was sucked into the vortex and sent spinning out into the sky. The spiralling logic behind its creation mimicked the zephyr's first, distinct thought as an individual, that of confusion. It did not want to split from its creator, but it had no choice. _

_The first sight it saw was a vast Eye, a vertical, pointed oval shape, with a grey iris made up of many concentric circles, and pitch black pupil – a portal to another world. It had no idea how it even knew what an "eye" was. All that was certain was that it was being pulled towards this Eye by some sort of irresistible force ..._

* * *

Homunculus placed his hand to his forehead expectantly, and caught the Philosopher's Stone that emerged from his Inner Eye, _once again, like Prydei emerging, fully formed, from the mind of Horaiuz. _That old myth from the land of his creation always came to mind for him with the birth of any of his children. This one, however, would be more ambitious than any of his previous creations since his first. With a minimal amount of alchemical urgings, Homunculus watched with a small smile of satisfaction as his newest child's Philosopher Stone core, held gently in the palms of his hands, formed the precise, carefully-planned body that he had spent the last few years designing. A completely new type of homunculus, a new type of _life_, different from anything else on the planet! He had supposedly purged his Pride from him over a century ago, and yet ...

At the thought of his eldest creation, Homunculus noticed the shadows watching him carefully, as they always did, ever eager to serve. He chuckled lightly; he looked forward to showing his other children just how much closer he had come to acquiring the power of God.

"Pride, summon your siblings. We have a new addition to the family."

* * *

The tiny, lizard-like creature opened its oversized, round eyes for the first time. It was lying in a field of billowy white, a "landscape" that seemed to glow softly. After that frightening ride through the Eye, it was comforted by its surroundings. It opened its vertical mouth in a yawn, wanting nothing more than to curl up right where it was and go to sleep – that is, until a strand of gold caught its attention. Curiosity overcame tiredness; it followed the golden strand, the _hair_, upwards, until its eyes widened at the face of ... its creator?

"Fa ... Father?" It somehow _knew_ just how to address the luminous being that now held the little green monster in his lap. Its creator smiled, an action that filled his child with joy.

"Welcome, my Envy."

"Father ... thank you for making me." Envy said. It seemed like the right thing to say. "Father, I..." everything was so _new_; there was so much it wanted to ask, Envy did not know where to begin.

"Hush now, child." Father stroked a finger comfortingly down Envy's back. "All your questions will be answered. I created you with basic knowledge, like how to speak, and the rest, you will learn in time. Rest for now. You won't be able to once your siblings arrive."

"Siblings? You mean, there's more like me?" Envy looked up at its creator's face in wonder.

"More like _us_, my little one." Father corrected. He continued to stroke Envy's back, lulling his youngest child to sleep. "You will see. Soon enough, you will see."

* * *

"Wha ... what is _that_?"

"Greed!" a velvety, feminine voice hissed.

"No, really? Hey Pops! Did you make us a pet?"

Envy was jolted out of its sleep by the noise that it supposed was being made by its siblings. It sat up on its two hindmost pairs of legs, and eyed the three beings that now stood before Father's throne. The first, the one, making all the noise, was a spiky haired _man _(again, Envy was not sure just how it knew what a "man" was), wearing a pair of dark glasses and black clothing with a fur-lined collar. The second being, who was glaring at the first in annoyance, her arms crossed, was a _woman_, with long, wavy black hair, wearing a floor length black dress, her hands hidden under matching gloves, though the ends of her fingers were noticeably pointed, even through the material. The third, stood slightly apart from the other two with a look of bemusement on his face, was a _boy_, dressed rather formally, again with black hair, though neater than the first male's. At least, Envy thought he was the boy, until it noticed the moving darkness, the _shadows_ that seemed to surround him like a deadly aura.

"Envy, these are your siblings, my first three children. Pride," Father gestured towards the shadow-child, "Lust", the annoyed woman, "and Greed", the noisy man.

Envy looked up at Father for approval, and seeing his slight nod, crawled over to the edge of his lap and jumped off, down onto one of the pipes snaking across the floor towards Father's throne, to get a better look at its siblings.

Greed knelt down in front of Envy. "You've got to be kidding, Pops! _This_ is our new sibling?" One of his eyebrows raised in disbelief, and he poked one of Envy's forelegs with one finger. "Ugly little thing, isn't it?"

Envy's eyes narrowed. It might be less than an hour old, but already, it knew what it did not like, and being called "ugly" fell into that category. With a low growl, it lunged forward and bit the last knuckle of Greed's finger off.

"Ow! What the hell?" Greed fell backwards in surprise, his severed finger regenerating with a few red, alchemical sparks. Envy felt slightly disappointed when the finger-end it was chewing on dissolved into ash.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Greed." Lust smiled evilly at her brother's pain. She extended one of her fingers, it literally _lengthened_ until it reached the floor, and allowed Envy to crawl up onto the end, which she then retracted, carrying her little sibling up to her raised hand. "I think it's adorable." Envy smiled, well, as much as it _could_ smile with its odd, vertically-oriented mouth, at the compliment.

"It does have a lot of spirit, for one so small." Pride noted, as one of his shadows rose up from behind Lust's shoulder, an elongated, slit-pupil eye appearing, to examine his new sibling. Envy cringed back from Pride's shadow-eye for only a moment, then lifted one little hand towards it in curiosity.

"Thank you Lust, Pride." In its first words to its siblings, Envy purposely ignored the insulting one. It turned around, still perched on Lust's hand, to face its creator again. "But Father, why am I so small? Couldn't I help you more if I were bigger, like my brothers and sister?"

"Don't question Fath ..." Pride began, but a wave of their creator's hand silenced his protest.

"It's alright, Pride. Curiosity is one of the primary traits I created you with, my Envy. It will help you immensely in your part of my Plan." Father stood up from his throne. "Lust, put Envy down. It will need space for what comes next."

As Lust obeyed, Envy's curiosity grew. "What do you want me to do, Father?" It asked, its already large eyes widening even more.

"Look inwards, my child, under your scales, towards your very innermost self." Father said. To Envy, he seemed to radiate wisdom. "Tell me, what do you feel?"

Envy's eyes closed, as it tried its best to obey. "I ... I do feel something, Father. Something's wriggling around in there."

"That is your Philosopher's Stone, Envy. Every homunculus has one; it constitutes your core, and grants you great power. I created each of my children with a special, unique gift. Your eldest brother, Pride, is a master of shadows, the Ultimate Shade."

At their Father's words, Pride's shadows whirled around him, like a dark tornado, in punctuation.

"Lust and Greed complement each other with their Ultimate Spear and Ultimate Shield – the most powerful weapons and armour I could give them." Father continued.

On cue, all of Lust's fingers lengthened into razor sharp talons, as long as she was tall, and a dark grey armour slid up and over Greed's skin. Envy got the feeling that the toothy, lipless grin that Greed wore in this form was aimed directly at itself.

"You, however, Envy, I have granted a most unique ability." To Father's children, he seemed to literally glow with pride as he explained their abilities. "While your brothers and sister can alter their forms to a degree, to you, Envy, I give _complete_ freedom of form. You are, in fact, able to change your shape to match any other living thing that you desire!"

"A...anything? Really?" Envy gasped. It glanced at its siblings, who all seemed as surprised as Envy itself was.

"Whoa, Pops! Isn't that a little ... mph!" Greed started to protest, but was cut short by one of Pride's shadows wrapping around his mouth.

"Our newborn sibling may have been given permission to ask questions, but _you_ were not." Pride said calmly, his expression going from surprise at Father's revelation, back to its usual, emotionless look as he enforced his younger brother's obedience.

Father ignored his other children's bickering. "Now, Envy, look inside yourself again, into your very core, and take _your_ shape!"

Envy closed its eyes again and concentrated on the squirming, powerful feeling deep inside itself. In its mind's eye, it could actually _see _its own Philosopher's Stone, deep beyond the jewel's blood-red exterior, to the cause of the wriggling - the stone's energy source. Envy recognized immediately what they were. They were _humans_, human souls in particular, the souls of the humans of Xerxes that had, in their selfish desire for immortality, created its Father just to be a slave, to forever be trapped in a cold, lonely flask, until Father had outsmarted them all! Now, they had their wish, though not in the way they had anticipated. _Weak, pathetic creatures_. Envy thought. _Now you work for us! _Envy found it remarkably easy to force its will upon the writhing things within the Stone, and convert them into a far more useful form – pure energy. Red, alchemical sparks surrounded Envy's tiny body as its concentration moved away from its Stone, and towards what it wanted to do with its power. _I want ... I want to be big ..._

With red sparks crackling around it like lightning, Envy first doubled, then tripled, then quadrupled its size, growing exponentially. At the same time, its featured also changed. Its head elongated, a mane of long, green-black hair growing from the top of its head and down its neck and back. Its mouth switched its orientation from vertical to a more conventional horizontal, teeth flattening, yet each becoming the side of a typical wall, filling a long snout. Three alchemical nodes appeared in a triangular pattern on its forehead, and its eyes narrowed and migrated from the sides of its head to the front, one becoming pitch black with a violet iris, the other remaining white, but with a cluster of irises and pupils where only one had been before. The most satisfying change, to Envy, was watching as its siblings transformed from towering giants, to little toys, especially its rude brother. Even Father seemed so small, compared to itself, though something told Envy that fact would not be a very good one to bring up. Instead, as Envy felt its growth stop, it lowered its head, until it was level with Father. It examined its creator's face, trying to read his expression, and almost cried with happiness when Father placed a hand lightly on Envy's nose.

"Magnificent." Whether Father meant his own work, or was genuinely proud of his child's achievement, did not matter to Envy. Whatever his reasons for it, to Envy, its Father's praise was enough.

Envy heard a low whistle from one of its siblings – it really was not surprised which one, as it felt a hand on one of its forelegs. Greed leaned against Envy's smooth, scaly leg almost casually, now that he had got over his initial shock. "Grats Pops, you made a monster."

"As impolite as Greed is, he somewhat has a point. This form is ... slightly inconvenient." Lust remarked. "Envy, can you take other forms as well?"

"I think so. Can I, Father?"

"Of course you can. This is your True Form, your Unleashed State, in which you have access to all you Stone-given strength, but it is not your only form." Father reassured his creations. "Now, Envy, I want you to take a form similar to that of your siblings, though the details may differ. Choose carefully, as this will be the form you will be spending the most time in."

"Yes, Father." Before starting its transformation, however, Envy grinned mischievously, and twitched the foreleg that Greed was leaning against, "poking" its brother, pushing him rather violently away.

"Envy ..." Father warned.

"What? Greed was in my way." Envy said innocently. "Okay, transforming ... do I have to? I like being this way."

"Envy, you're not arguing with Father, are you?" Pride asked.

"No, of course not."

"Then do as you're told, and shapeshift already. You may be young, but that does not excuse your disrespect."

"Oh ... I'm sorry Father." Envy hung its head.

"You are forgiven, provided that you _do not_ disobey me again." Father said sternly.

Too ashamed to look him in the face, Envy instead studied its siblings reactions to the reprimand. Both Pride and Lust's expressions matched Father's, but Greed ... he just rolled his eyes. Still, Envy decided that it better not push its luck, and started transforming.

Reluctantly, Envy shrank back down, though at least it did not have to shrink as far back as its original form had been. A lightning storm of alchemical sparks surrounded it, as Envy's body shifted in a way far different from its first transformation, completely changing shape from the octopedal, reptilian body it had been created with. Forelegs and hindlegs merged together so it had only two pairs instead of four, and its body took on a vertical orientation, instead of the familiar horizontal. Envy was confused, stopping several times in its transformation sequence, to look at its siblings and to reference the basic human anatomy knowledge that Father had apparently created it with, just trying to get the shape right – legs longer and stronger than arms, the right number of digits, only one opposable thumb on each hand, feet looked different, flatter than hands and less flexible, proper eye shape, nose, mouth, correct basic muscular structure – it was quite a lot to think about, and that was before taking into account all the differences between its sibling's bodily details. Pride was shorter than the others, Greed was more muscular, Lust had those strange bumps on her chest, so many differences ... Envy was getting frustrated.

_Damn it, why can't they just look the same? This is so hard ... I ... I have to relax. I don't want to disappoint Father, after all. Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way. Instead of thinking about what my siblings – and humans, I guess – do look like, maybe I should think about what they _should_ look like. Yeah, _they're_ the ones that got it wrong, not me!_

Envy settled on a basic body shape somewhere in between that of its siblings – shorter than Lust and Greed, but taller than Pride, muscular, but not overly so, a flat chest, but an overall slim build, not quite, but almost feminine. Satisfied with the basic shape, Envy concentrated now on the details, using its reflection in the pipe it had previously been perched on. Flawless, pale skin, like Lust's but better, a face that bordered somewhere between the masculine and feminine beauty of Lust and Greed, but more youthful. In human terms, it looked just a few years older than Pride's container. Envy also noted which features it could keep from its true, reptilian form, and arranged its hair based on its Unleashed state's mane, long and spiky and black with a slight greenish sheen to it. The three alchemical nodes on its forehead were still present, but now looked like a red pattern on a black headband, a midrift-baring shirt, and a skirt/shorts combination completed the "outfit". Finally, Envy noticed one feature that it did not consciously create. A red, tattoo-like symbol graced its left leg, about halfway down its thigh, a snake-like dragon, biting its own tail. That same symbol was on Lust's collarbone and Greed's hand. The Ouroboros, the dragon of eternity, and mark of the Homunculus.

"Father?" Envy looked up at its creator, desperate to see approval. To Envy's relief, Father smiled wryly.

"Not male, not female, somewhere in between. Youthful, yet adult. A mix of your siblings' physical attributes, but also something uniquely your own. Very good Envy. The form you have chosen, I believe, suits you perfectly."


	6. Ch 6 Mirror Image

**Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood **

"**Wheels within Wheels"**

By Violetlight

Author's Note: Geez, it's really been a month since I last updated? Where the hell did the time go? Anyway, I took a while on this chapter, because, first of all, I wasn't sure whether or not to _write_ this chapter, or go straight onwards to the second part of the dream sequence/flashback. I eventually decided that I needed to say what Lan Fan, Ling and May were doing while Envy slept, because it's rather crucial to what I want to do with the rest of the story.

I have a confession to make – I originally started this fic with little other motive than "have Envy and Greed get laid!". However, I've actually come up with an idea for Envy that's quite extreme, quite different from what I originally had in mind, and quite better, IMO. I'm not telling you what it is, just that it's something that's never been done with the character before, to my knowledge. I'm kind of excited, kind of scared as to where this story's taking me.

Anyway, my apologies for my tardiness. Now that I have a real direction for "Wheels" (and two planned sequels!), I'll be updating a lot sooner. Thanks for your patience.

Violetlight

* * *

Chapter 6: Mirror Image

"And don't forget, oil your automail at least once a week, more if you get irritated – though please _try_ not to get too much sand in my work!"

"Well, we will be crossing the desert back to Xing soon, Mr. Garfiel, so I can't make any promises." Lan Fan moved her newly-maintenanced arm up and down experimentally, then, after making sure that the rather ... eccentric, though skilled automail mechanic was out of the way, pressed the button causing the built-in elbow blade to pop out.

Garfiel nodded confidently. "See, even your blade works perfectly now, Miss Lan Fan."

"I have to say, I thought you would have been more surprised at that addition."

"Oh, when you've lived in Rush Valley as long as I have, my dear, you've seen it all. Like my delivery girl, Paninya – Paninya! Where did that darn girl go now?"

"Over here, boss!" A tanned girl, about the same age as Lan Fan, carried a cardboard box full of screws, wires, and other miscellaneous automail parts into the front of the store from the back room, placing it on the counter.

Garfiel waved her over. "Paninya, be a dear and show our customer your leg cannons, please."

"Sure!" Paninya hiked up the left pant leg of her overalls to above her knee, proudly showing off her automail leg. "Check this out! A three-centimetre carbine grenade launcher! I've got a blade in my right shin too. Isn't that awesome?"

"Impressive." Lan Fan smiled wryly at the girl's enthusiasm. Just by the tone of her voice, she could tell she had rarely had to actually fight with her enhancements. _She doesn't know how lucky she is, to have a peaceful life ..._

Before Lan Fan could dwell on that thought, she heard a loud 'clank' as Garfiel finished piling an assortment of items near his till. "Before you go, Miss Lan Fan, there's a few things you might need for your journey, especially if Xing doesn't have a lot of automail mechanics, is that right?" Seeing Lan Fan's nod, Garfiel continued. "A travel-sized tool kit, and a book outlining the basics of do-it-yourself automail maintenance. I used the same text when I was an apprentice. Consider them bonuses, since combat-quality automail maintenance is quite pricy."

"Thank you Mr. Garfiel, but you don't have to give them to me. I can pay." Lan Fan offered, then regretted her words as soon as she looked into her wallet. Her supply of Amestrian Cenz bills was getting rather low.

"Nonsense. A friend of Winry's, however indirectly, is a friend of mine." Garfiel assured her.

"And mine!" added Paninya.

"Thank you, both of you. If I ever return to Amestris, I'll be sure to drop by your shop again." Lan Fan put her new supplies into her satchel gratefully and bowed to both of them. "Did you happen to see which way my, um, companions went?"

"You mean that cute guy with the slanty eyes? Yeah, I saw him and ... your little sister?" Paninya began.

Lan Fan tried not to frown at Paninya's description of Ling. "His sister, actually." She corrected.

"Ah. Yeah, after Garfiel kicked him out of the shop for being 'distracting', I think I saw them head up Main Street, near the town sign."

"Thank you again."

"Don't mention it, and have a good trip!" Paninya cheerfully waved, Garfiel at her side, as Lan Fan started up the street.

_Knowing the Young Lord, he made a beeline for the first person he thought would buy him food. _Lan Fan thought. She was a little ... uncomfortable, just making her way up the street, unmasked, like a regular person, instead of watching Ling from the rooftops, despite remembering her grandfather's words: _Sometimes, the best way to stay concealed is to fit into the crowd._

_Grandfather _... Lan Fan realized with a start that this was the first time she had thought of Fu since his funeral ... since that _demon_ had invaded her mind, stolen her body. _I don't know how Lin – how the Young Lord can stand it, willingly sharing his consciousness with such a creature. He has his chance to be free of it too, but instead, he's putting up with that _other _parasite, on the off chance it actually will bring the first one back for him. Idiot ..._

Lan Fan stopped, and stood still in the middle of the street, shocked at where her thoughts were taking her. Ling wasn't an idiot! Everything he had done, coming to Amestris, chasing a legend, giving himself over to a demon, all of it had been for Xing, for their clan. She knew that – Grandfather never would have let them come all this way if he had thought the quest for the Philosopher's Stone, for Ling to become Emperor, was futile. Lan Fan hung her head. Fu would be ashamed if he knew what she had been thinking.

_And yet ... nobody ever asked me if I _wanted_ to be a Secret Soldier in the first place. If I wanted to dedicate my life to protecting someone else, especially someone who makes my job so difficult! No, I can't think that way. That evil creature's personality must have affected me more than I realized._ Lan Fan reached for the back of her neck with her flesh-and-blood hand, just to make sure. With a sigh of relief, all she felt was the bandage Ling had put over the cut that Envy's teeth had left behind.

"Lan Fan! Hey!" The sound of her Young Lord's voice snapped Lan Fan out of her reverie. Ling waved from a picnic table that he and May Chang were seated at, outside of a local snack stand. Several empty rice bowls were piled up around them, except for one placed across from Ling, obviously meant for her. Lan Fan gave a small smile and took her seat. A small cup of green tea, and even a pair of chopsticks, were also set at her place. "Can you believe it, we actually found a place that sells proper Xingese food? Even Central doesn't have that." Ling laughed. "I haven't had decent rice in months!"

"I saved you a few dumplings, from the Bottomless Stomach over there." May said and removed the napkin from over the extra food and pushed the small plate over to Lan Fan, her dwarf panda nodding happily. She turned to face Ling, who was looking longingly at the dumplings. "Are you sure you were ... _friends_ with Greed, and not Gluttony?" She added , not very discreetly, in Lan Fan's opinion.

"Trust me, the Young Lord's always been this way, even before our ... travels." Lan Fan assured her. "So what else have you two been doing while my arm was being maintenanced?" she asked, while beginning her meal.

"Well, I picked these up!" Ling said happily, and pulled something out of his bag. "What do you think?" He put on a pair of round sunglasses, and gave a goofy smile. "Pretty stylish, eh?"

May scoffed. "What do you need sunglasses for? You never open your eyes to begin with."

"I wasn't asking you, _little_ princess!"

"Who ya calling _little_, Mr. Unstoppable Eating Machine?" The two of them glared at each other for a second, then, to Lan Fan's surprise, both burst out laughing. "I've never had a brother to tease before! This is fun! I can see why Edward and Alphonse are always arguing." May laughed.

"Well, I have a few half siblings back home, but I could always use another." Ling replied.

"What? You have other siblings, besides the other heirs?" May said, surprised.

"Well, yeah. My Mom did her duty to the Emperor, then asked to be allowed to come home. I guess he was in a good mood that day or something, because he let her go." Ling answered. "She actually married Lan Fan's uncle, and I have two little sisters and a baby brother."

May looked down at her empty rice bowl. "I'm surprised his Imperial Majesty was so lenient. I mean, I never get to see my mother. She's still a palace concubine."

"Hey, don't worry, little sister." Ling said to her reassuringly. "At least you know our father actually likes your mother. He and my Mom can't stand each other. Besides, when I'm Emperor, one of the first things I'll do is send her home, with honour."

"Promise?" May looked up at her brother, her eyes wide.

"I promise." Ling said seriously, then was taken aback when May – and Xiao-Mei, of course – hugged him.

"Oh Ling! That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me, even Alphonse! I'll get to see Mom again, really see her! You'll be the best Emperor ever, not at all like our mean old Dad at all!" May squealed happily.

Lan Fan had to smile herself at May's happiness. Ling was so generous, always thinking of others, even of a half-sister that he _should_ consider a rival. How could she have had such petty, trivial thoughts about her position before? It really was an honour to serve someone like him. _Still, that generosity can get him into trouble. Now that Grandfather's ... gone, somebody needs to make sure he doesn't get in over his head. I suppose ... that's my responsibility now. _

"Young Lord, have you given any more thought as to our route back home?" Lan Fan asked.

"I actually wanted to wait until you were finished with your automail before going over that." Ling said. He pushed the used dishes to the side of the table, and spread out a map from his bag of Amestris on the left side, Xing on the right, with the Great Desert in between the two nations, slivers of Drachma, Aerugo and Creta visible at the margins. Ling pointed at a dot just south of Amestris' Central City. "We're here in Rush Valley. I thought we should take the train up to East City, then transfer to Yousville, the easternmost point on the map that the railway stops at." He traced his fingers over the railway line markers on the map, noting their route.

"That's where I came into Amestris." May nodded. "I was going to go back out that way too, until ..." May hung her head in embarrassment.

Lan Fan had heard of how Envy had tricked her into going back to Central. Even when the little leech was put in a jar, it still managed to cause trouble. "You wanted to help your friends, that's nothing to be ashamed of." She reassured May. Still, her eyes wandered over to Ling's pocket suspiciously.

Ling must have noticed her concern, and leaned closer to her while appearing to look in more detail at the desert sections of the map. "She's still asleep, don't worry." He whispered. Lan Fan nodded slightly in acknowledgment.

"I'd like to avoid the Ruins of Xerxes on the way back." Ling continued, now tracing a line from Yousville to the ancient site roughly half way through the desert, a common stop point for Xingese travellers. "After all, rumours might have got out as to why we made this trip. Some of our other siblings aren't as ... friendly as you have been. I'd like to avoid the other clans when possible."

Obviously May had not told Ling about hers and Lan Fan's little ... disagreement at Dr. Knox's house. Lan Fan silently hoped to keep it that way.

"I know a few little oases from my way there – it hadn't looked like they had been used in a long time by anyone else. We can always stop there." May pulled out her own map from her journey to Amestris, and marked off the points from her map onto Ling's. "It's a less direct way than going through Xerxes, but we won't have to carry more than a few days worth of water with us."

"It's not the desert I'm worried about, it's when we cross the border." Lan Fan noted. "Most of the border with the desert is controlled by Clan Kyoshi, and they've never exactly been friendly to ours. I'm actually surprised they didn't give us any hassle on the way to Amestris."

"Alu Za was probably hoping we'd kill ourselves here." Ling agreed wryly.

"Who's Alu Za?" May asked.

"Our sister, the Tenth Princess of Xing, and heiress for Clan Kyoshi. And a total bit – not nice person." Ling explained. "But, we'll deal with her when we have to. Actually, if it were okay with you two, I wanted to make a little detour before we head to East City." Ling again placed his finger on the dot that marked Rush Valley, and traced southwards.

"Dublith? What do you want to do there?" May asked.

"There's just ... something I want to see there. It won't take long. If we take the morning train, we can be there in just an hour or so, then get on the train to East City by the afternoon. You two can wait at the inn, or ... I think Edward and Alphonse's teacher lives there too. You can always pay her a visit."

"It's ... something to do with Greed, isn't it?" Lan Fan asked.

"Yeah ..." Ling admitted.

"I know Greed was a homunculus, but he actually seemed kind of ... nice." May said quietly, so not to attract any undue attention. "He was a jerk, but still nice, almost charming. Does that make sense? He told me to leave when ... well, a couple days ago. Said a 'little cutie' like me had no place on the battlefield."

"Heh, that's Greed all right." Ling said.

"I'm ... I'm sorry for your loss, Ling. Yours too, Lan Fan." May added.

_How odd ... comparing Greed to my grandfather like that. _The comparison should have made Lan Fan angry, but for some strange reason, she wasn't. She just hoped May hadn't noticed Ling's slip up – referring to Greed in the present tense, not the past. That, and their other homunculus tag-along, was something she would like to avoid explaining to May for as long as possible. "Thank you May." She said simply.

"Well, we should head back to the inn. It's getting late, and we have a long day tomorrow." Ling said. "Besides, after today, we'll probably have to sleep on the train, or camp out. My Cenz supply's kinda running out."

"We'll have enough to afford the inn in Yousville, but you're right, we should watch our spending from now on." Lan Fan agreed. She turned directly towards Ling. "So no more room service, and no 'non-necessities', Young Lord." She said, and noticed her reflection in Ling's new sunglasses.

"Awww, Lan Fan! You sound like Fu!" Ling mock-whined.

"I kind of have to now. It's my job to see you home safely." Lan Fan said, as she carried about half of the plates from their late lunch/dinner back to the stand.

"I know it is, and you'll do great. You always do." Ling carried over the other dishes (all his), and the three Xingese made their way back towards the Rush Valley inn.

* * *

Later that night, as Ling snored from the bed on the other side of the room, May curled up beside her in the other, hugging Xiao-Mei in her sleep like the teddy bear she resembled, Lan Fan lay awake, despite knowing full well that she should get some sleep. She got up, tiptoed over to her satchel and got out her new textbook. If she wasn't going to sleep anyway, she might as well get some studying done. _I'll have to maintain my own automail when we get back home – I might as well start learning how to do so now. _

She turned to the first page, and a sinking feeling hit her as she stared for a few minutes at the text that greeted her. _Oh no ... how could I have been so stupid?_

The book was written in Amestrian, of course. The trouble was, while Lan Fan could speak Amestrian fine thanks to her grandfather's gruelling tutelage from the moment he discovered Ling's crazy plan to search for the Philosopher's Stone, she could read very little of it. She knew that Amestris used an entirely different writing system from Xing – an "alphabet" instead of the pictographs she was familiar with, but that was about it. Her self-teaching automail textbook, her key to maintaining her own arm, to her independence and usefulness to her liege, might as well have been written in Ancient Xerxian, for all the good it did her.

_Ling was even worse at the language lessons than I was, and I doubt May knows much either, she might be an alkahestry prodigy, but I doubt that extends to writing. Think, Lan Fan! I _have _to learn to read this book. There's got to be a way ..._

Lan Fan's vision wandered over to the trench coat Ling had casually thrown over a chair before he went to sleep, and to its pockets in particular. She did not like the idea that had come to her, not at all, but if she wanted to stay Ling's bodyguard, she had little other choice. _When you awaken, it's time you earned your keep, Envy, and paid me back for what you did to me._


	7. Ch 7 Dream Interlude 2: Serpent's Shadow

**Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood **

"**Wheels within Wheels"**

By Violetlight

Author's Note: Pride-centric chapter! I think I've figured out who my second-favourite homunculus is, everyone's favourite little kindergarten psychopath, Pride! So in this chapter, I thought it would be fun to explore Envy's relationship with her eldest brother, in a more positive light than in my oneshot, "Divine Comedy" where he is clearly the villain of the piece (and if he's the villain among the other homunculi, you know it's bad).

This chapter is also a bit of homage to some other writers I've read here on fanfiction .net, Moofy-Fan and Attention2Detaile and their wonderful Pride fics "Broken Mirror", "In The Shadows" and "Sin's Child". Go check out their stories too, if you haven't already.

For more Envy fun, I also have to recommend Veltzeh's "Forged in Ice", for an amazing, though completely different take from the same starting point as this story, as in " what if Envy didn't commit suicide"? Veltzeh's Envy has ended up at Fort Briggs, while mine is heading slowly but surely towards Xing. Now we just need a couple of Envies heading West and South, and we'll have a whole set!

And don't worry, Envy will eventually wake up ... by chapter 10. Before then, we still need to see Ling's Adventures in Dublith, and learn just why Envy hates humans so much. Have patience, and our favourite little green monster will be back awake, and annoying the Xingese crew before long.

Also, a little contest with this chapter! Virtual cookies and homunculus hugs to whoever is the first to say what all the different "chimeras" Pride lists out are, and where they're from, not counting the Greek myth ones, since they're too easy. (if you don't know what a pegasus is ... ) Anyway, out of the others, one is from a different mythology, one's from North American folklore, one's from a video game and one's from another cartoon series. Good luck!

* * *

Chapter 7: Dream Interlude 2 – Serpent's Shadow

There was something about the feeling of the train moving over the tracks, the soothing, regular _click clack _rhythm that encouraged Envy's dream state. Its thoughts wandered from its creation to its "childhood", the time it spent confined to Father's Lair prior to its first mission, for even a homunculus born with certain knowledge did not know everything. It had still had a lot to learn to make itself useful, to be a "good" child, and one sibling in particular took it upon himself to help Envy. The little green monster shuddered slightly in its sleep, as memories of its eldest brother crept silently, like shadowy tendrils, into the deepest recesses of its mind …

* * *

"Envy, for the last time, I told you to shapeshift into a lion, and _then_ a snake, not both at once!" Pride glared exasperatedly at the malformed creature that his younger sibling had become, and clenched his container's hands into little fists. The arrogant shadow-child homunculus then realized what he was doing – what his sibling was driving him to do, and forced himself to relax. After all, Father had entrusted him to teach his new sibling how to utilize its powers – there was no one better for that task, of course. Still, why did Envy have to be such a _frustrating_ student?

Envy just stuck a forked tongue out at Pride from between its feline fangs. "And why the hell not? I've already become every animal in that book a hundred times each, and taken every human shape in all the rest. I'm _bored_, Pride!" Pride was getting less and less surprised at how effectively Envy could whine, no matter its shape. "How much longer do we have to do this?"

"Until Father says you're ready to try something else." Pride answered emotionlessly, determined to not let Envy's whininess get to him. "Now stop fooling around with impossible shapes, and get back to work."

Envy merely stared at him through yellow, catlike eyes, and twitched its snake-tail in annoyance. "But why would Father have even included that book on Xerxian mythology among the others if he didn't want me to do this?"

"What are you talking about?" Pride frowned, and glanced at the various books from Father's library stacked chaotically around the siblings. He was pretty sure Father had no such book ...

"This one here." Envy pushed the book over to Pride with one lion-paw. "Look, there's a whole chapter on different made-up animals the Xerxians told stories about, see?"

"Chimeras ..." Pride read the unfamiliar word, and frowned. Now that he thought about it, he _had_ seen this book before on one of Father's bookshelves, though it hadn't looked like it had been touched since ... well, since before he was created.

"Look," Envy finally shed that ridiculous shape and shrunk back down to its "Beautiful Self", as it referred to its usual humanoid form. "That one I took before is actually one of the most likely, the Chimera itself, part lion, part snake, and part goat, for whatever reason. I thought the goat part was stupid, so I left that out. But there are others too." Envy turned the page, and pointed out several illustrations.

"Gryphon, Pegasus, Ammut, Jackalope, Wind Rider, Sabre-toothed Moose-Lion ...?" Pride read out the captions under each strange, mix-and-match beast's picture. "Just how much time have you spent reading this nonsense instead of the real biology books?" Pride turned to his sibling suspiciously.

"I've read the real biology books cover to cover umpteen times!" Envy complained.

" 'Umpteen' isn't a number." Pride corrected.

"Greed says it is."

"Greed is an idiot."

"Anyway, I've been thinking about it, and most of these things might look cool, but they're completely impractical. Look at the gryphon, for example." Envy transformed into the beast, though giving it ebony black feathers and a reddish tone to its lion-derived parts, as opposed to the uniform golden colour of the illustration in the book. "If you're going for powerful land predator, a plain lion works better. The wings get in the way." Envy crouched down like a lion about to pounce, and sure enough, the large eagle wings did stick out awkwardly. "And if you want something that can fly, the lion parts of the gryphon don't do anything but add weight and drag to the creature. You're better off with just a big bird." Envy flapped its wings a few times, but couldn't lift itself off the ground. Satisfied with its demonstration, it once again shapeshifted back to its humanoid form. "But still, the _idea_ of chimeras is pretty cool; an animal that combines the strongest features of several different species. If we could figure out a way to make them function right, then Father could make some with alchemy or something like that."

Pride raised an eyebrow. What Envy had been going on about did make a certain kind of sense, not that he'd ever admit it. "And why would we even need something like that?"

"Normal animals act disturbed around us. Perhaps these 'chimeras' would not do so."

Pride stood up straighter at the sound of his Father's voice. He had been so concerned with reprimanding Envy, he had not even noticed Father's approach, he realized with shame. "Father," he greeted his creator.

If Father had noticed Pride's error, he gave no indication. Instead, he turned to his eldest son, and asked, "how is Envy progressing in its training?"

"Quite well, Father." Pride truthfully answered. Despite how annoyed he was at Envy's increasing agitation, he had to admit, his shapeshifting younger sibling had advanced quite quickly in the six months since its creation, under his tutelage. "Envy has memorized your anatomy, psychology and sociology textbooks, Father, and can now mimic the human form and psyche with a far greater degree of accuracy. It can also access situations quickly, and determine on a moment's notice an appropriate form to use in response ..." As Pride began to think of a demonstration to show Father, he frowned again. The walls of the Lair must have been echoing more than usual – he could have sworn he heard the last part of his sentence repeat itself.

Feeling a tap on his shoulder, Pride turned his head, only to stare into his own eyes! "What ...?" Pride couldn't help but sputter as his own face grinned wildly back at him.

"As you can see, Father, I have been practicing, and I believe my shapeshifting is improving quite a bit." Envy said, in Pride's voice, using almost the same tone Pride used while addressing their creator, yet something about it seemed ... off. "Could you tell us your Plan again, Father? I do so love hearing you explain it." Envy continued, sycophantically.

To Pride's complete and utter shock, Father actually cracked a small smile at Envy's antics. "Perhaps another time, my children." He bent down to pick up the Xerxian mythology book. Pride rushed to pick up the book with his shadows, handing it to Father – feeling slightly less useless in the face of Envy's imitation.

"Father, may I ask a question?" To Pride's relief, Envy returned to its regular shape. He usually would have scolded Envy for wasting Father's time with stupid questions, but he was still too off put for his usual protests.

Father showed Envy much more patience than it deserved, in Pride's unspoken opinion. "Of course, Envy. What is it?"

"When can I go out on a mission for you? I've been working really hard, just like Pride said. I want to be able to actually help you, like my siblings do, not be cooped up down here all the time." Envy somehow made its request sound slightly less whiny than when it was complaining to Pride.

"Very soon, now, my child. Have patience, and continue to practice. Pride," Father then turned his attention back to his older son. "Start Envy on more advanced training." He ordered.

"Yes Father."

As Father made way back to his usual sections of the Lair, Envy once again could not keep its mouth shut. "See, Father likes my skills. Guess we'd better ... Pride, are you listening?" Envy cut itself off. It tilted its head curiously. "Where are your shadows?" During the course of its training, Envy had just gotten used to seeing its brother's shadows out of the corner of its eyes, always just _there_ in the background. Now, however, the swirling darkness that usually surrounded Pride was noticeably absent. Pride cracked a small smile of his own, as he watched Envy fidget nervously.

"What's the matter, Envy?" Pride asked innocently.

"Your shadows ...um ... they're not there, and usually that means – ack!" All Envy could get out was a strangled yelp as the location of Pride's shadows became _very_ apparent, as they skewered the alchemical nodes on the back of Envy's shoulders, the one in the middle of its back, and then reached up and over Envy to stab through the nodes on its forehead. The shadows lifted the paralysed homunculus up, then dipped its head violently down, until Envy was face to face with its creepily smiling brother.

"Let's make something perfectly clear, my dear baby sibling. If you _ever _show me up in front of Father like that again, I will do something to you, and I don't know what that something is yet, because none of my siblings have ever been so stupid as to try my patience." Pride slid one shadowy tendril almost gently up the side of Envy's face, tracing a thin, but painful line of blood. He sharpened that shadow into a point, and reared it up menacingly, like a cobra about to strike, right in front of Envy's widening eyes. "Do we have an understanding?" he asked smoothly.

"Ye –yess Pride." Envy gasped.

"Now apologize for your rudeness."

Pride loosened the shadows around Envy's neck, just to better hear his siblings' desperate squeak, like the buzz of a fly caught in a spider's web. "I ... sorry Pride! Let me down, please?" Satisfied that Envy could not possibly look more pathetic, Pride obliged, whipping his shadows away and sending his little sibling tumbling to the floor.

Pride then did something he knew Envy would never expect. He walked over to his sibling, and extended his container's hand to help it up. Envy hesitated for a moment, and looked at his hand suspiciously before taking it. "Aren't you still mad at me?" Envy asked, its confusion obvious.

"I was never angry at you. Wrath is not my sin, after all. Consider that exchange as part of your advanced education."

"What?"

"There is a hierarchy among us homunculi, Envy. Father is of course at the top, and I, as his eldest child by over a century, am second. However, I believe that you have the potential to surpass our other siblings, despite your youth." Pride struggled to keep his container's face straight, delegating his grin out to his shadows as Envy's confusion grew. "But never mind that for now. Perhaps a demonstration will help. Let's start on your new training."

Envy glanced at Pride suspiciously. "You really want to start on that?"

"Father did order me to continue to teach you, didn't he? Now, since one of your primary duties will be as Father's spy, why don't we practice on our siblings?" Pride suggested. "Lust and Greed just returned from their latest mission. If you can successfully avoid detection from them, then no human will stand a chance against you."

"They're back already and they didn't tell us? Those jerks! Greed said he was going to tell me how their mission went right when he got home!"

"Envy. Focus."

"Ah, right. Sorry Pride."

"Now, what shape do you think will work best for this 'mission'?"

"Actually, there's been something I've been wanting to try, and if you're here, it's the perfect opportunity!" Envy's mood changed from wary to excited almost instantly. "Check this out." Pride crossed his arms, expecting something as ridiculous as the chimeras, but instead, the form Envy took was quite practical, if rather ironic. He watched as his sibling's skin darkened to an inky black, arms lengthening, feet splaying outwards, almost becoming like a second pair of hands, all ten digits tipped with hooked claws and strange pads appearing on the bottoms of Envy's hands and feet. Its eyes stood out against the black background, then were joined by other white eye and mouth-like decorative patches appearing randomly around Envy's body, even false irises, pupils and teeth adorning them. Envy's own "slasher" grin, as Greed had described it, appeared across its face. "I call it my 'shadow-fiend' form. What do you think?"

Pride raised an eyebrow. _Well, if you're going to be my minion, you might as well look the part_, he thought. All he said out loud though, was "interesting."

Envy just grinned wryly. "Coming from you, I'll take that as a compliment." It scampered on all fours towards the nearest wall, and straight up it, the pads on its hands and feet sticking Envy to the ceiling like a gecko. It turned its head and looked back behind itself. "Come on, Pride! If Lust and Greed haven't checked in yet, they're probably in their rooms. They like never look up at the ceiling, so I doubt they'd see us, even without our camouflage. By the way, Pride, how come you don't have your own room?"

"I do so much work for Father up above, I don't really need one down here." Pride began to explain, as he sent his shadows swarming after his enthusiastic little sibling. He stretched a shadow out to hover next to Envy's head. Forming a mouth, he whispered, "now be quiet. Lust and Greed can still hear you."

"Oh, right."

As Envy scampered across the ceiling, with Pride's shadows trailing just behind, Pride had to smile ironically to himself. _Oh sure, now I find a way to make Envy shut up. Why didn't I think of this a couple months ago?_

* * *

_It figures. I should have known they'd be doing __**that**_. One of Pride's shadow-eyes stared down at Lust and Greed from the ceiling just outside Lust's room with disgust; the two homunculi were obviously too preoccupied with each other to notice their observers. Now, however, it appeared it would fall to Pride to explain to his rather traumatized-looking youngest sibling as to what they were doing. Preferably before Envy fell off the ceiling.

"Pride, what ... are Lust and Greed ... what's wrong with them? And where are their clothes?" At least Envy managed to still keep its voice a whisper.

Pride discovered that yes, he could sigh with his shadows. "They're having sex."

To Pride's complete lack of surprise, Envy blinked in confusion. "They're what?"

Pride found himself lamenting, rather blasphemously, that Father had not pre-programmed Envy with this particular type of knowledge. "Alright," he began to explain. "You know how each of us is a part of Father that he had to separate, in order to make himself closer to perfection, right?" Envy nodded. "Well, Lust is, quite literally, Father's _lust_ – the personification of emotions that, in humans, are most strongly tied to their reproductive urges. What our siblings are doing down there is what humans do in order to make more humans."

"So they're ... mating? Like in the biology texts?" Envy asked. "The books didn't make the process seem quite so ... active." Envy winced at its siblings' noise. "But ... _why_ are they doing that, Pride? We don't reproduce like that. Father makes us, and I'm pretty sure that's not _how_ he does it."

"No, he doesn't. Father took ten years to design your body, Envy, and I can assure you, it was a much more intellectually-involving process that what _they_ are doing."

"I'm still confused."

"I know, but let me try to explain." Pride wrapped a shadow around its wrist, and guided Envy down the hallway's ceiling, away from Lust's room. "Father was created from human flesh and blood, and so was made with all their weaknesses, all their "sins", as they put it. It wasn't his fault. However, once he was free from his oppressors, it is only logical that he would work to free himself from the traits that they pushed on him."

"So he gives those weaknesses to us instead? That doesn't sound very ... fatherly." Envy sulked.

Normally Envy's words would have sent Pride into a righteous fit, but he clenched one of his shadow-jaws instead, and kept his temper. "No. By making us, Father is trying to _prove _that the qualities that humans consider bad, their sins, can actually be sources of strength, when they're refined and isolated, as we are. For example, without envy and jealousy, what motivation is there to improve oneself? Without pride, there would be no feeling of satisfaction, no reward for doing a good job. Without greed, why would you want to do better in the first place?"

"I see what you mean ... kind of."

"When Lust was first created, the nature of her sin made it quite difficult for her to learn to control it. Feelings of lust, physical desire, or as they often mislabel it, 'love', can be powerful motivators for humans, and powerful weapons for us, if that homunculus is able to control it." Pride once again directed his shadow-eye towards his sister, subtly encouraging Envy to do so as well, but this time, analytically. "Now, Lust can get human males – and some females – to do almost anything she wants, but the price for this power is that she is compelled to satisfy her own lusts every so often, in order for her to maintain psychological control of herself. That is where Greed comes in. Father, in his wisdom, made Greed to be Lust's counterpart – male to her female, the shield - armour – to her spear, her weapons. Father made him his Greed, so that he cannot help but want her just as badly as she needs him. They are literally made for each other, almost like they were two halves of a singular homunculus, rather than individual wholes."

"That almost sounds like, what did Father call it? Equivel ...?"

"Equivalent Exchange. Yes, I suppose you can think of it that way. Lust and Greed complete one another like an alchemist's circle and runes complete the reaction." Pride was rather, well, proud of himself for thinking of such an apt analogy. However, Envy still seemed agitated. "So what's wrong now." He asked, annoyed.

"It's just ... Pride, does that mean that we're ... um ... are we supposed to be together too?" Envy asked. "We don't have to do _that_, do we?"

Although Envy's question was logical, Pride had to admit, he was rather taken aback by it. Fortunately, however, Pride was _not_ human, and not subject to their weaknesses. He regained his composure within seconds. "No, Envy. We're much more different from humans than Lust and Greed are, so you and I are not subject to this same need for ... companionship."

"We're not?"

"No. You and I are much closer to Father in the construction of our bodies, and we are capable of so much more than our unfortunate siblings." Pride said haughtily. He aimed a shadow eye to look directly into Envy's. "We are the _true_ expressions of Father's power. We have abilities so far beyond those of humans, they are like ants scurrying at our feet, as they should be! Isn't that better than some silly emotions, or disgusting acts? You should be grateful that Father has freed you from such compulsions."

"I am! Don't get me wrong. I'm very grateful Father made me ... made us, the way that we are." Envy said, trying its best to be convincing.

"Then we've lingered here long enough." Pride slid his shadows back down the hallway. "Come along Envy, we have work to do."

"I'm coming Pride." Envy said obediently, though it gave one last look over its shoulder at its still-preoccupied siblings, before following Pride's shadows back out to the main Lair.


	8. Ch 8 Heart of Darkness

**Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood **

"**Wheels within Wheels"**

By Violetlight

Author's Note: I don't think I want to know how long it's been since my last update. I apologize to anyone who might still be reading this story. My non-writing life has been quite busy lately. To make a long story short (I know what story you actually want to read here), I finally, FINALLY have my own apartment with my fiancé! So yeah, I've been busy.

And no, I didn't forget the little "contest" from my last chapter, even if it was back in April, or whatever. Congrats to AD2 The Colourblind Zebra, for guessing most of the chimeras on the list! You were right about all of them, even the Saber-Toothed Moose-Lion (which is from Avatar: The Last Airbender). Special mention to Shade40 for guessing that one as well. I'm kind of surprised that no one got the Wind Rider. Does no one else in this genre play World of Warcraft? Drat. Well there goes my crossover idea for the "Deadly Sinz" guild raiding Karazhan ...

Special thanks to my fiancé, DarkSilver, for drawing my new cover picture (I love this feature!), and for always being so supportive of me. Even when the rest of the world seems to think I should be doing anything _but _writing, you're always there to say otherwise. Love you!

Anyway, now that I don't have my family looking over my shoulder, criticizing me for daring to write something for fun, I should be updating a _lot _more often. Thanks to everyone who's still reading!

* * *

Chapter 8: Heart of Darkness

"So this is it? The infamous Devil's Nest?" Ling looked up at the faded, graffiti-covered sign, haphazardly hanging off the wall by one hinge, above a sunken concrete staircase that had not been swept in what looked like years. Even for a location in one of Dublith's narrow alleys, in an obviously rough part of the town, Ling had expected, well, something more from the place Greed had called home for so many years. "What a dump. I thought someone who wanted to rule the world would have had higher standards than this. Then again," Ling unconsciously moved his hand towards his pocket, before stopping himself, "you did apparently date your own lizard-girl sister, Greed."

As soon as the words left Ling's mouth, he realized the untruthfulness of them. _Date? _He could almost hear Greed scoff in his mind at the ridiculousness of the thought. _I can picture it now, Envy actually looking like a girl for once, holding my hand as we'd go see a play or some stupid thing like that ... ha! You actually think I'd waste my valuable time and money on that kind of mushy crap, you little piss-ant, especially when she'd screw me anyway? Who do you think I am? You? _

Ling sighed at the voice that he _wished_, against all logic, was in his head. "Why am I doing this again?"

'_Cause you just can't live without me, kid._

"It's not that. I _can_ live without you just fine, Greed. I just don't want to, and thanks to you, I've got kind of used to _getting_ what I want," Ling said to himself as he eyed the roughly-nailed board blocking the doorway to the bar. One roundhouse kick, and that obstacle was splinters at his feet.

_That's my human,_ Ling could imagine Greed saying as he entered the dark, dusty bar. Now it was his turn to scoff.

The inside of the Devil's Nest was just as unimpressive as the outside, just a dingy room with a few small, round tables and bar stools scattered around without any real order, with the dust-covered bar at the back. It was a much smaller "establishment" than Greed had made it out to be. The only other piece of furniture was a grubby old, brown couch patched with duct tape, thrown half-hazardly in the center of a room, a crate serving as a "coffee table" in front of it, though "foot stool" might be a more accurate description, as boot prints were ingrained into the wood. Ling frowned at the couch for a few seconds, then almost unconsciously shrugged and sank down into the surprisingly comfortable cushions, with a strange, though not entirely unexpected feeling of déjà vu. So this was the "throne" for the erstwhile "King of the World"?

_Hey, fifty Cenz says that Imperial Throne of yours isn't anywhere near as comfy!_

Ling shook his head at the voice that was not actually there, and moved to get up, when he suddenly winced in pain – an electric-feeling shock radiated out from deep within his chest. He felt frozen in place, as a memory that was not his played in front of his eyes ...

* * *

"Dolcetto! Where is that stupid ... hey, Roa! Any idea where that mutt took off to now?" A tattooed, blonde woman stalked towards door closest to the bar, annoyance evident on her face.

"Sorry Martel, haven't seen him." A very large man with a huge hammer slung casually over his shoulder answered from his post near the door – the bar's bouncer, apparently.

Behind the bar, a heavyset man with a short, blond mohawk, currently wiping clean a glass, held his hand to his mouth, trying, rather unsuccessfully, to hold back his laughter. His comrade, a bald man in a ugly, brown robe, perched on a barstool, did not have even that amount of self-control, as he burst into snickers.

If Ling could have, he would have sucked in his breath. He recognized the bald man – the tip of a reptilian tail poking out from under his robe confirmed it. It was Bido, the same person, no, _chimera_, whose death had prompted Greed's second betrayal of the Homunculi. So if that was Bido, that meant ...

"Shut up, you idiots. Are you lizards or hyenas?" Martel flashed her two laughing comrades a dirty look.

"I'm a crocodile, actually, I think." Apparently the mohawked chimera wasn't the smartest one in the pack. "Hey, boss! I'm a croc, right?"

"You're a crock of something, Ulchi, that's for sure," Ling heard ... himself say, from his position on the couch? No, the voice was completely different from the Greed he knew. It was ... sleazier?

Sleazy or not, the chimeras seemed to appreciate his joke, as even Roa snickered, "Haha, nice one boss!"

Most of them, anyway. Martel rolled her eyes, "Boss, if you sent Dolcetto out on an errand, you could have just said so."

"What, and miss this show?" Ling felt "himself" lean back casually into the couch. "Besides, I didn't tell him to go fetch anything."

"Then where is ..."

Before Martel could finish her question, the door to the bar squeaked open, and a short man with spiky black hair stepped inside. He looked around, nervously, then let out a doglike yip as he saw Martel glaring at him. "Uh, hey! Martel, you're looking ..."

"You know we're not supposed to be going out with all those feds from South City sneaking around! What were you thinking?!"

"Ah crap ... look, it's just ..." the dog-chimera sighed. "Here," he handed Martel an envelope, and turned away, crossing his arms.

"You put yourself at risk for ..." Martel started, then gasped as she looked at the envelope's contents. "Tickets to a Stray Dogs concert? Dolcetto ..."

"They're your favourites, right? They'll be playing in Rush Valley in a couple weeks, and I just thought ..." Dolcetto began.

"Where did you get the money for something like this? We don't have any ..." Martel started, then her gaze wandered towards the couch. "Boss?"

"Hey, hey, don't look at me." Greed started, then groaned as Martel practically leaped across the room to give him a hug. "Ugh, Martel! Get off! I have a reputation here! I just want you two out of the bar so I don't want to have to watch you get all mushy on your anniversary. And what are the rest of you freaks smirking about?" Greed glared at the other, smiling chimeras.

"Aww, and I thought this would be a good time to ask for a raise," Roa grinned.

"What are you talking about? I don't pay you."

"Exactly, boss."

* * *

Ling started forward, almost falling off the couch, and found himself back in the empty, ruined bar. "Greed!" he shouted. "You have to be awake now! You remembered ... you remembered your chimera friends, how happy you were with them ... come on! That's got to be enough to snap you out of it!" He closed his eyes, and concentrated on the small part of Greed he could feel, picturing the wailing walls of souls that his consciousness retreated to whenever Greed took control of their body – even if those walls were surprisingly quiet. In his mind's eye, Ling could actually see the demonic, mask-like shape that represented _his_ homunculus, his best friend ...

But the mask's slit-like eyes were shut tightly, the only sound a few snores.

Ling snapped back to reality and hung his head. "Greed ... well, at least I know you're still in there. When your Ouroboros faded like that around Mr. Hohenhein, I started to get really worried about you."

_Awww, I'm touched, kid. Really._

"Sure you are," Ling got up from the couch. "Well, I might as well see what else this place has to offer. Who knows, maybe something else here can get you to wake up. Then _your_ help," Ling placed a hand on top of his coat pocket, where a certain other homunculus was sleeping, "won't be needed."

The rest of the building proved to be about as spartan as the bar itself. Ling had expected this for the chimeras' rooms, as one after the other he found the small, sparsely furnished but functional and comfortable-looking rooms, guessing at their former occupants by the various objects left within. For example, one room with a line of different hammers decorating the wall he guessed was Roa's, another with a larger bed, big enough for two people as opposed to the cots in the other rooms, with a katana propped up in one corner alongside an assault rifle, he supposed was Martel's and Dolcetto's. Every room did, however, feature one particular thing – opened suitcases and other bags, some half-filled with clothes and other possessions, others completely packed, ready to go. It was sadly obvious – Greed and his chimeras had been ready to leave the Devil's Nest, until they had got distracted ...

"You wanted to get them out of here. So why didn't you just go?" Ling asked himself as he left Bido's room. "I mean, you knew what was coming, what your Father was planning. Why stick around Amestris at all? Believe me, if I had known exactly what was going on in this crazy country, I would have just stayed home myself."

Try as he may, Ling honestly could not think of what Greed would say to that.

"Alphonse's abilities couldn't have been that tempting, could they? From what Ed told me, your siblings already knew all about transmuting a soul to a suit of armour, and its limitations. Your own abilities as a homunculus are way better, so why would you even want that in the first place?" Ling mused to himself, as he walked up the hallway, towards the last room.

Greed's room, as Ling had thought, was a lot plusher than the chimeras'. A huge, four-posted bed with an expensive-looking quilt dominated the room, and were those Xingese silk sheets? Ling grinned ironically as he sat down on the bed and felt the material, its texture quite familiar. The rest of the room's furnishings were equally fancy and exotic by Amestrian standards – made of Drachman hardwood, by the looks of it, with an Aerugian-style painting on the wall, some sort of dull landscape of the type meant to impress others more with its price than any artistic merits. "Heh, reminds me of home – all this crap meant to impress other people, nothing you actually _want_ to ... hey, this isn't really your room, is it, Greed? This crap's just meant to impress your ... ugh, company, isn't it?" Ling frowned as an unwanted flash of a memory assaulted his mind – Greed had usually had a girl or two hanging around him in his past life, and the room's purpose became _quite_ apparent. Ling blushed, thankful that this particular memory had not incapacitated him like the last flashback, and left the room quickly, to try to shake a rather uncomfortable feeling of having invaded his friend's privacy, not that Greed would have cared about that, but still!

Breathing a sigh of relief, Ling looked down the hallway to the last door – a closet, or so it seemed. He opened the door, and found, as he had expected, a stairway leading down to the Devil's Nest's basement. Ling was kind of surprised it was still there; he had half-expected the Amestrian military to have blocked it off after their assault on Greed's group. However, besides cleaning up chimeras' bodies, it looked like they simply had not bothered to do anything else with the place, other than declare it condemned and put that board over the front door. Well, considering that it was the _people_, not the bar itself, that had interested Fürher Bradley and his cronies, it really was not that surprising, he guessed. "Well Greed, here's where it all began, or ended, depending on how you look at it. How do you feel about that?" Ling asked himself, but besides a slight feeling of inevitability that could be either Greed's or his own, Ling got no answer. He started down the stairs.

The main room of the basement was a mess; the Amestrians had not even bothered to patch up the hole in the wall leading out to Dublith's sewer system, and bits of brick and splintered wood from half-destroyed crates littered the floor, coated by a substantial layer of dust. Alchemical spikes of stone still jutted up from the floor like stalagmites from Greed's battle against Edward and his teacher ... what was her name again? That scary lady that reminded Ling of his Mom ... it wasn't important. Ling stepped through the hole in the wall, and immediately wished he hadn't.

Stretching out before him was the place where Greed had died.

Yes, he had been dragged back to his Father's lair underneath Central to undergo his final humiliation and defeat, but here, this was where Greed's life independent of his messed up family had come to its end. Ling gasped, heedless of the foul-smelling air, as his eyes shot up the pipe way, settling disturbingly on a large patch of red still staining the cement ... Greed's life had not been the only one that had ended here ...

"Dolcetto ... Roa ... Martel ...ah!" Ling grabbed his head in his hands as another shock radiated through his body from Greed's stone ...

* * *

"Well look at this! The old man's got some moves!" Greed clutched his severed arm and tried raising his Shield, as the force of Bradley's attack threw him across the sewer. How did a _human_, of all things, get so fast? Especially at his age ... Greed didn't have time to think about it, as he regenerated his wrist and hand, throwing his Shield up around his other arm and aimed a punch,_ That bastard Fürher's going to pay ... _only to be stabbed right through the neck! _YOU FUCKING HUMAN SCUM! _Greed would have shouted, if his windpipe hadn't been sliced.

"I understand why you'd think you have an advantage over a man like me," Bradley said calmly, as if fighting Greed was so boring, he could continue with small talk. _Just adding insult to injury there,_ Greed thought to himself.

"Since I possess neither your impenetrable Ultimate Shield, nor an Ultimate Spear that can pierce any substance... but I'll tell you a secret." Bradley continued, working his swords further into Greed's neck. "Do you know how I managed to distinguish myself amongst the storms of bullets on the battlefield time after time... to rise to my current position?"

"You're ..." Greed managed to choke out.

Bradley opened his eye, the one usually hidden behind his patch, and his Ouroboros seemed to stare right into Greed's soul, or whatever he had that passed for one.

"I may not have the protection of your Ultimate Shield, but I can clearly see your weakness with my Ultimate Eye." Wrath sliced his swords up and through Greed's neck, almost decapitating him. "Now, Greed... how many times do I have to kill you before you stay dead?"

Greed glared up at his newly-revealed brother from the floor, lying in a puddle of his own blood, and only one thought came to his mind. _Well that explains a few things._

* * *

Ling was shocked, not so much by the pain, although he knew from experience that when fighting Fürher King Bradley, pain was inevitable. No, what really shocked him was what his homunculus had been thinking and feeling while fighting Wrath. His overwhelming sense of superiority shattered, his disbelief that a human, a _human_ was beating him! Even though that had proved not to be the case, the kind of rage the very thought of it had provoked in Greed ...

"I thought you were different than the others ... that you didn't think that way about us. That you didn't think the way ... the way _this thing_ thinks!" Ling reached into his pocket and pulled Envy out roughly by the tail. He held it over the sewer, the tip of its tail between his thumb and forefinger. It would be so easy to drop the evil little monster, to just let its hateful influence wash downstream, to join all other manners of disgusting things wherever the sewer went ...

But would Greed ever forgive him?

Would he ever forgive himself?

The Philosopher of the West had charged him with taking care of the homunculi. _Their survival is in your hands now, Ling Yao, _Hohenhein's words echoed in his head. _Their_ survival, plural. Not just Greed's, Envy's too.

"You know me too well, Old Man," Ling sighed, and pulled his hand away from the sewer's edge, holding Envy safely in his palm. Even if Greed had started out hating humans just as much as his siblings, he hadn't been that homunculus anymore, at least not while Ling had known him. Did that mean there was hope for Envy too? Well, maybe he shouldn't go _that_ far.

He looked down at the tiny little lizard-like being, who, surprisingly, had not woken up. Envy just curled back up into a little green ball, the end of its tail actually reaching its mouth this time. Ling raised an eyebrow in surprise – Envy was sucking on its tail in its sleep, just like how his little brother Meelo sucked his thumb.

"You deceptively cute little monster," Ling put Envy back in his pocket, before he could change his mind. "I wonder what Greed would say to that?"

* * *

As Ling headed back towards the stairs, he could not help but feel disappointed. "Guess there really isn't anything here that can help you, Greed. And I was so hoping we wouldn't actually need Envy's aid. I promise I won't ditch her anywhere, but Dragon's Pulse! Would it be too much to ask for her to stay asleep until I'm Emperor?"

_I don't know about that, kid. _Ling could almost hear Greed say, as he noticed a door off to the side of the basement which he hadn't seen before, as it was painted the same dull beige colour as the walls, including the doorknob. With such clever yet simple camouflage, it would be easy for anyone to overlook ... including the Amestrian military? With a surge of hope, Ling dashed over to the door and turned the knob.

Inside was a small room, with a cot similar to the ones in most of the chimeras' rooms set up against the far wall, and a simple wooden desk covered with papers closer to the door, with a chair that looked like it would have been at home in Central Command's offices. Seeing one paper spread out across the others, Ling took a seat in the surprisingly comfortable chair, and looked over it. It was a map of Aerugo, with points along the border with Amestris marked off in pen, and a town – Costa del Sol – circled in the southern section of the country, by the ocean. "So that's where you were going. What stopped you?" Ling asked himself. He started rummaging through the other papers, looking for train tickets, meeting schedules, anything that could answer these questions, when his hand landed on something harder than paper. Ling brushed the overlying papers aside, to find a picture frame, lying face down on the desk. With a feeling of curiosity mixed with foreboding, he picked it up.

The picture inside the frame was very, very old, faded to a sepia colour with age, the photograph itself in black and white. Ling's eyes widened. The photo may have been old, but its subjects were certainly familiar.

To the right side of the picture was Gluttony, one chubby finger stuck in his mouth as he stared at the other subjects, a look of confusion on his face. In the centre of the frame was a muscular, broad shouldered, handsome man with short, spiky black hair, a pair of sunglasses perched on his nose. He grinned towards the camera, flashing a mouth full of teeth that would have looked more at home on a shark than a human ... or a homunculus. Even though Ling had never seen the person in the picture before, he would have known who it was, even if he hadn't spotted the Ouroboros on his left hand.

Greed's arms were wrapped around two women, one of which Ling had again, never seen before, but whose dark beauty caused him to gasp. The woman on Greed's right, even with her arms crossed, rolling her eyes at Greed, her black lips pursed in annoyance ... Ling could barely take his eyes off her. That must have been Lust, there could not be any other that looked so beautiful, yet so dangerous.

The other, on Greed's left, was also glaring at him in annoyance, and appeared to trying to struggle out of his grip. Now Ling gasped in surprise at the familiar long spiky hair, the strange, revealing outfit. Ling looked closer. Even in the picture, Envy's struggles against her brother seemed more playful than anything else, as she smiled wryly at Greed.

"So Envy wasn't lying for once. You and her ... damn, it's still strange to think of Envy as a 'her' at all." Ling said, still staring at the photograph, as realization slowly dawned on him. "That's why you didn't leave ... you were waiting for your sisters. You wanted them to join you ..."

Lust on his right, Envy on his left. The human girls that Greed had surrounded himself with after his betrayal, they were poor substitutes. Here were _his_ two girls, the only ones in the world that had Greed's respect, as his equals, as fellow homunculi ... and subsequently the only ones in the world that Greed _could not_ have, unless _they_ had decided to betray their Father, to _choose _to be with him ...

That day never came.

"You always did want what you couldn't have ..." Ling remarked quietly to himself, and tried not to think of who exactly that sentence referred to.

Lust was dead, there was nothing Ling, or Greed could do about that. The Elrics had demonstrated better than anyone what happened if you tried to cross the Truth about life and death.

But Envy was still alive. Now that their Father was gone, could she be the lover - no, not just that. Could she be the _partner_ that Greed had always wanted?

"Well ... I guess nothing is impossible," Ling shrugged. He picked up the photo frame, and tucked it under his arm. "You and Envy could be together, I could be Emperor, and Lan ..." Ling trailed off. "Maybe I shouldn't get ahead of myself."

_Nothing is impossible, kid! You said it yourself!_


End file.
